Star Lynx: Other Side
by Mr. Hybrid
Summary: A fight over an Orbital Gate damages it and sends a group of Lylatians to an unknown planet. While it shows signs of an alien civilization, something is very wrong with this world.
1. Chapter 0

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions).

 **Star Fox: Other Side**

* * *

 **Chapter 0**

* * *

A slow, subtle beeping gradually brought consciousness back to her at a slow, steady pace. She pushed herself up off the console of her Arwing and groaned. Her forehead felt damp, and when she pressed her hand against it, and looked at it, her glove was stained red. Upon returning her gaze to the console, she saw a similar red stain adorning her radar screen. Doing her best to rub the stain away from the screen, she tried to get an idea of her location. The screen glitched and spasmed, and after a few moments gave up, shutting down altogether. With a heavy sigh, Miyu leaned back against her seat, staring out the canopy. Then, she realized that she was underwater. How deep, she wasn't too sure, but she could still see the sky.

As she began to recover, her memory started to return. She could vividly recall combat, _flying in the depths of Lylat Interstellar Space, in a dogfight against Venomian Remnants for control over a_ _n_ _Orbital_ _Gate that Cornerian scientists were testing. The Gate had opened unexpectedly during the fight, and the Portal that formed was unstable, with Miyu and other fighters being unable to escape its pull. She recalled one other_ _Lylatian_ _flying with her, helping her defend the Warp Gate. She had been sucked into the Portal as well, and her last memories before everything went black included Miyu and Fay being shot out of the Portal with any Venomian Remnant_ _s who were trapped as well, all of them caught in the gravity of a nearby planet, one with a remarkable resemblance to Corneria_.

She groaned and looked around at the underwater environment around her. She checked the screen for anything larger than a local aquatic creature. Unfortunately, or fortunately, she wasn't sure, the scanners detected nothing larger than a small fish. She ran a diagnostic on the Arwing itself in an attempt to determine the damage. It was surprisingly minimal, but the little damage she had sustained was quite severe. Her left wing had been clipped in half, and her fuel tank had ruptured. Groaning, she tried to activate the Arwing's thrusters, hopefully get out of this body of water she was in. The thought crossed her mind about why someone hadn't noticed her in the water, and as her Arwing started up, with a large warning about low fuel, she soon realized why when her Arwing lurched out of the water and into the air. The nearby beach showed her something startling. An alien city with only the slightest resemblance to Corneria lay on the island, and as she did a fly-by in an attempt to find a place to land, she noticed something else surprising about it. The city was in ruins, vehicles of ancient models were abandoned, some had crashed into various objects around the city. The buildings themselves were showing the signs of old age, some were crumbling very slowly, had broken windows, or were missing entire parts of themselves and leaving only the framework of supports that held them up, and in some parts not even that.

A loud beep reminded Miyu that she only had a few more minutes worth of fuel left in her tank, and after a quick survey, she managed to find a clearing on one of the roads to land safely. As the Arwing initiated its landing procedures, Miyu relaxed and assessed her own injuries. Aside from her head injury, she seemed largely unscathed. Once she landed, she opened the canopy and climbed out of the Arwing cockpit. Her right leg immediately twinged and forced her to pause for a moment to check her leg. There was a small red stain on her thigh, and a quick check around the cockpit revealed a piece of mangled technology with her blood on it. She recognized that it used to be her 12-S rifle, and it had been destroyed in the crash. Grunting, she pulled herself out of the semi-intact Arwing and landed less than gracefully on the ground. Picking herself up, she managed to find the Arwing's supply compartment on the underside and get her EE-40 pistol, along with a first-aid kit.

After doing what she could to treat the wounds she had and bandaging herself up, she checked her ammunition stock and her food rations. She didn't have much in the way of food, probably a week's worth if she only stuck to one meal a day. _This is gonna do wonders to my body, and not the good kind_ , she thought to herself and pressed her head against the Arwing's hull. In terms of ammo, she had enough plasma cartridges to take on a small armada all on her own, assuming she was a sharpshooting sniper with perfect accuracy. Her mind returned to the alien city around her. The city was practically the picture she thought of when she thought of urban decay. Whatever had happened here must've happened quickly, as there was literally no movement to tell her that any _thing_ was living here at all. She grabbed her helmet from inside the compartment, she hadn't worn it during their mission, having not anticipated facing Venomian Remnants during what should have been a simple test run. She slipped it on and tapped it. When a lens unfolded from inside the helmet and positioned itself over her right eye, she was thankful that it still had enough power to work. She scanned the area for any signs of radiation, chemicals, or microbes. Nothing registered on the scouter, which threw out a few of her ideas behind what had happened here.

An idea popped into her head and Miyu, in an attack of curiosity, tapped her scouter twice. A holographic image appeared an arms-length away from her and she "tapped" one of the icons that appeared. The fact that she could activate this meant that she was still able to connect with her Arwing's computer. A few clicks later, and she had updated her journal with a short list of objectives:

→ #1: Find Fay

→ #2: Get home

→ #3: Find out what happened here (Optional)

Going back through the Arwing's logs, she tried to see if the ship's radar had tracked Fay's Arwing. The screen showed them, after having left the portal, plummeting toward the planet, and she could see Fay's Arwing as a tiny green blip on the screen, descending toward the planet alongside her and a bunch of red blips before the screen abruptly shut off. She had an idea and decided to check for something. She sent an electromagnetic test signal into the sky, hoping to hit a satellite in the atmosphere. A return signal told her that there were dozens, maybe hundreds in orbit around the planet. She was pleasantly surprised, and a bit skeptical that these satellites could register her technology, and sent the data from the Arwing's radar, hoping to get an idea of the area she would have to start searching in. There was a pause, as if the satellite network was thinking, then sent back geographical data of both the general area that Fay had apparently landed in, as well as map data for her own general location and the locations of most of the other landing sites of the Venomian Remnants. She marked the location of Fay's Arwing on her map and closed it up. She looked back to her own Arwing. She wasn't as adept at fixing tech as Fay was, but she figured if she could at least patch up the fuel tank and find some fuel, she could get to Fay quicker.

* * *

The first sensation to arrive when consciousness returned was a mind-numbing pain in her left shoulder, and when she opened her heavy eyelids, she realized why. A piece of the canopy glass had lodged itself in her shoulder. It was painful as Hell, but when she tried to move that arm, she figured that it hadn't hit any nerves. She realized that she needed to find a medical kit and treat it, lest her injury become infected. With a gasp, she forced breath into her lungs and sat up, despite the burning protests from her midriff. She looked around at her surroundings, her blue eyes scanning the area for hostiles or friendlies, and instead only seeing an orange-tinged sky filled with black clouds that made her think of an apocalypse film, or something similar.

As she struggled out of her Arwing, her mind raced at the thought of where Miyu was and whether she was alive or not. Briefly, as she reached into the Arwing's supply compartment for her first-aid, she entertained the thought that Miyu was too stubborn to leave Fay alone and die, no matter what. She patched herself up, then began analyzing the damages to her Arwing. Unfortunately, while she was mostly okay, save for the various wounds, her Arwing looked like it had seen better days. She glanced around at the alien city around her and realized that, in her crash, she managed to come to a stop on the roof of one such building. She spent some time looking around and realized that, at ground level, there were all sorts of vehicles that, while definitely not Lylatian in design, definitely looked similar to vehicles she'd seen driving around on the streets of Corneria. She went back to the Arwing to see if she could get an idea of what she needed to get it space-worthy again. Some fiddling with the on-board computer eventually granted her a ship diagnosis. The damages were more severe than she thought, as the G-diffusers had cracked alongside the fuel tank. While she figured she could siphon fuel from the vehicles below, once she knew what it was, and patch the tank, a G-diffuser was difficult to fix without the right tools, none of which she was certain she had. However, fixing one was only half the trouble, as the exotic matter, known publicly as Orichalcum, contained inside the G-diffusers, which was used for generating the graviton field to reduce the g-forces caused by reentry, not exactly the cheapest thing to replace, would probably leak out and become inert as the exotic particles escaped or decayed.

She cursed when she realized that and pressed her head against the ship, resting for a moment before looking around. The ancient, alien city was, in many ways, similar in its designs to Cornerian cities. It made her wonder what may have lived on this planet. She looked around the roof of the building she was on in an attempt to find a way down. As she did, she had a brief thought and checked to see if her map could pull up. Thankfully, her headset was still intact and the mapper was still available and receiving geographical data. She paused upon realizing that. "If this place has a map," She muttered to herself, "that must mean there's satellites!" She mused over the advantages of having access to a map and as a thought, put her crashed Arwing on the map as a way-point if she needed to return. As she did, she activated her scanner in the event she needed it. If it still worked properly, she would be able to detect functional machinery. She'd used such a device before when she and Miyu had explored a few stellar wrecks for anything worth selling or salvage.

She found a section of the roof that had collapsed, likely due to her Arwing's crash, that gave her access to the top floor. The rubble left from the collapse would leave a half-decent path up to her Arwing when she returned with the parts to fix it. She managed to find a stairway down to the bottom floor, but upon checking again to see just how high up she was, she began to wonder if there was some kind of elevator available. While searching, her scanner pinged and led her to a small device. It had apparently remained functional, despite the possible centuries that had passed, leading Fay to wonder how it worked. The device was a hand-held, box-shaped construct with a few buttons on it and what looked like an antenna. She picked up the device as the scanner automatically analyzed and memorized its design. A bit of fiddling around with it led her nowhere, so she tried tapping one of the buttons, an X-shaped button. Her headset picked up on a foreign transmission and once she ran a scan of it, she realized that it was a video file. Fay spared the device a glance and realized that it was a type of transmitter. She decided to open and view the file.

After seeing the video play, she had to lean against the wall to recollect herself. She understood every word that was spoken, but that was beside the point. She had just seen things that she knew absolutely had to make it back home. "I need to find Miyu. Right now," she declared, more to herself since there was no-one around to hear her. She decided that trying to find an elevator would be useless and took the stairs, figuring it would take longer and her scanner didn't detect any additional technology.

* * *

A/N

→ This may seem like your typical "Star Fox meets X" fanfic of the "Star Fox crashes on X" variety, but as you can see, something is very, **very** different here. This is my twist on that fanfic model, based off a wild theory I once had.

→ I mentioned above that there is some original content I don't own. The content in question (EE-40 pistol, 12-S rifle, Orichalcum) belongs to Tobias Umbra and is being used with permission. I highly recommend you readers to check out his content as well.


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original content © Me (See A/N for exceptions).

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

Things had been very slow the past few hours. Miyu was able to carry her supplies with her, which was a good thing, except that it meant she didn't have much in the way of food or medical materials. She'd managed to explore a fair distance in that time, her mapper had been receiving data and had marked areas she had explored, but she had only a vague idea of how far she'd need to travel just to get within the estimated crash sites of the other ships. Her legs felt like they were on fire, being surprisingly sore, which Miyu attributed to the crash. All around her were ancient and decrepit buildings that seemed to taunt her with their resemblance to Corneria's skyscrapers. The roads and vehicles, while clearly ancient compared to Lylatian civilian transportation, were still similar enough that Miyu just couldn't shake the feeling of homesickness.

She checked her scouter for any working technology, highly doubtful that she'd find any. She did a double-take the instant her scouter pinged. Inside one of the buildings, the scanner pointed out a small, box-like device that the scanner's schematic program had determined to be a broadcasting device. The schematic program was an experiment that Fay had worked on a while back with Slippy and ROB, when she and Miyu were still part of the Star Fox Team, before they left the team after the Lylat War. Since then, Fay had kept the program, improving it and refining it, as part of their numerous salvage missions where they'd use it to determine the former purpose of various gadgets and tech they'd recover and thus know exactly what kind of price they'd ask for. Prior to the mission with the Warp Gate, she'd upgraded it to analyze devices not currently in its database and estimate its purpose. Currently, it had given Miyu a glimmer of hope, as she headed into the building.

The building itself was relatively intact, or as close as she figured it was intact, on the inside, though there were large cobwebs and a thick coating of dust on everything inside. Clearly, this building hadn't been in use for a long time. She looked around a bit, surveying the room with a critical eye. She checked the scanner again. The holographic map pointed her toward a desk a few feet away. She began going through the desk in an attempt to find the broadcaster. She found it in a drawer, a black, box-like object with a few buttons and an antenna. She picked up the device and pressed one of the buttons. The hologram appeared again with a message of a number of corrupted files being transferred to her 'Downloads' folder. Holding onto the device for the moment, she went through the folder and cleaned out the corrupted files, picking out two video files out of the mess. She checked around to ensure she was alone, then opened the first of the video files.

The hologram changed to a video player program showing a creature with a startling resemblance to an ape holding what she assumed to be a camera, recording himself. He had long, wild, brown hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. The next surprise came when he began speaking in fluent, natural-sounding Cornerian Standard, "Hello, whoever is watching this. I..." The creature trailed off, lost in thought, before speaking, "So, my wife and my coworkers insisted that I start recording my thoughts, citing it as 'therapeutic.' ...So I'm going to turn on this camera and record my thoughts in little video logs, I guess." A voice could be heard off-screen, the creature looked somewhere off to the side, "I'll get to it after my Vid-log, alright?" He turned back to the camera, "So, I'm not certain how long we all have left, not since It happened. If you're viewing this and don't know what It is, I'll talk about It in the next Vid-log. In the meantime, I just want to say that there's finally a light at the end of this tunnel. We think we've figured out how to combat Them and hopefully undo the horrors that those Bioterrorists caused. After this is over, I'm thinking about putting in for a long vacation in Scotland, just me, Jessie, and our kids. So, uh, I'll see you in the next video."

The video ended and Miyu had to lean back against the wall to regain her bearings for a moment. This video, whatever it was, was proof beyond a shadow of a doubt that life existed beyond the Lylat System. She then looked around at the building and wondered why she hadn't seen any of these life-forms since landing here. She then recalled the other video file she had and decided to open it. The video showed the same creature from before, though a much clearer view of him. He wore a white, pharmaceutical coat and had a black tie on with a grey business suit on underneath. This time, the camera wasn't shaky, instead it was stable, having been mounted on something unseen on the desk in front of him. "Hey, again. I promised in the previous video that I'd explain what 'It' was. Before I can, lemme tell you a story that should help explain all of this. A decade ago, Humanity finally made the First Contact. We met a species of animal-like humanoids, who referred to themselves as the Cerinians. Things were a bit rocky initially from I recall, mostly due to cultural differences. But we were able to work past them for the most part. After that, the Cerinians caught us off-guard with their introduction of a partner species. They call themselves the Krazoa, and their very existence has changed a lot about what we used to know about the Universe."

"The Krazoa were beings of, as impossible as it sounds, pure light. As in their physical structure was an extremely refined form of Photonic Matter that utilized photons bound to gluons alone as the composition of their 'cells' and biology. We had theorized about the existence of similar entities but we didn't expect them specifically. They forced us to rethink what we defined as life, and with that, they showed us something unpredicted by Standard Model Physics. Magic, which had allowed the Krazoa life, and the Cerinians such unique abilities unbound by our laws of Physics. Of course, this has allowed us to investigate magic and form new laws for it."

The creature shook its head, "More on that later. Anyways, after our First Contact, the Nanoscale Revolution began. We finally designed the first self-replicating, self-sustained Nanotechnology and with it, the first Strong Artificial Intelligence, or S.A.I. with the help of the Krazoa and the Cerinians. With this nanotechnology, we used it to cure cancer, perfect gene therapy, fix disabilities, and even rebuild the natural ecosystems of this planet." He paused, sniffed, and rubbed his left eye, "I might have a few pictures of our planet's natural beauty, finally restored to its former glory, saved on this drive. They might be all that's left of our beautiful planet at this point."

He sat straight up and in a slightly shaky voice continued, "Which brings me back to the subject of 'It.' Better known among some of the survivors as N-Day, It was the day after the day that we found out about a plot. A group of Bioterrorists had gotten hold of the source code used to control most of the Nanites in existence and altered it. They threatened to unleash it on the population unless we severed all ties with the Cerinians and the Krazoa. They refused to leave, something about not wanting to leave their new allies to who the Cerinian Prince had described as 'Self-righteous and self-serving monsters.' It didn't matter anyway, because they unleashed their nanovirus the next day. Its effects weren't sudden and noticeable, they were subtle and truly horrific. People would lose their inhibitions, becoming crazed killers and cannibals with no sense of morality whatsoever. They'd then lose sight of who they once were, reverting to animalistic and primitive instincts, and even then barely that, just to spread the plague. They'd ignore a shotgun wound just for a chance to scratch an uninfected human with nanovirus-laced nails. Their mere breath became a toxic miasma as the nanovirus escaped through their lungs to poison the air and the people around them. They'd eventually lose their human forms in favor of transformation abilities that changed them into monsters designed to infect, kill, or terraform the environment by infecting Nanites in the ecosystems with their malware to bend nature itself to their single-minded will."

"The Krazoa, being creatures of light, weren't able to be infected, and they were able to protect the Cerinians through a sort of symbiotic bond that we attempted to learn to protect ourselves long enough to develop a cure code. It didn't matter in the end though, because what the Nanovirus couldn't infect, it just killed, and that is what happened to the Cerinian Prince. And with his death, the remaining Cerinians on Earth were forced to isolate themselves from those who were in space when N-Day happened, to prevent the Nanovirus from spreading to the stars. We constructed a generator that would isolate the planet with a forcefield, and hopefully that will keep the nanovirus prisoner on this planet for a while." The human seemed to lose his stoic glance for a moment, "I pray that we were successful in our endeavor, and that this Vid-log isn't the only reminder that we even existed."

The video ended and Miyu was left more questions than answers. She now had an idea of who used to live in these ancient ruins and what had caused them all to disappear. That said, she was left wondering about various subjects that were mentioned in the vid-log, such as Magic, the Krazoa (whom she'd never even heard of until now), and the Cerinians. All she knew about the latter was that Krystal, a member of Team Star Fox, was allegedly one. Miyu had never personally met Krystal, and lost touch with Fox shortly after leaving the team as it was.

As night descended upon the abandoned city, Miyu returned to her Arwing and ran a quick diagnostic to be certain that everything functional was still accounted for. Even though repeated scans of the area showed nothing in the way of microbes, radiation, or even nanotech, she found herself feeling uncomfortably vulnerable outside her ship and elected to spend the night in the cockpit of the Arwing. She had a hard time sleeping, however, as many thoughts kept running through her head, _Will I ever return home? What if I can't find Fay? What happens when my ship is fixed and there's no way off-world? What if I can't fix my ship?_ Eventually, she slipped into a light doze, amidst a sea of "what if's" in her mind.

* * *

Morning on the planet look marginally less apocalyptic than the evening did, in Fay's eyes. When the first rays of light from the local star shimmered into the window of the building that Fay had taken up residence in for the night. The morning light was a much more welcoming sight, despite the slight, foreboding sense that she got from it. She slipped her headset on as she got up and off the rather comfortable carpet that she'd claimed as a makeshift bed, having not found any actual bedding in the building so far. It seemed that days and nights on this planet were more or less exactly like they were on Corneria, give or take a second or two. She recalled, before going to sleep, looking up and seeing large shadows in the night sky of this planet, before realizing that it was a small asteroid belt. She could see the asteroids more clearly now in the daytime, and wondered just what had caused the belt to appear around the planet. Today, however, she had more important things to focus on.

She had, yesterday, compiled a list of repairs that needed to be done on her Arwing, and she decided that out of all of them, the G-diffusers, fuel tank, and engine took top priority over the other repairs at the moment. She grabbed her backpack and her Blaster rifle, then headed out into the streets. The first thing she wanted to do was analyze one of the vehicles on the street down below. With any luck, she could find what she needed to fix up the broken parts of her Arwing in no time at all.

Upon exiting the building and arriving on the street, she found one of the vehicles, one of the few that looked to be in a decent condition, and began trying to open it up. Her schematic program automatically began scanning and estimating the functions of various devices in the vehicle as she set about removing the hood and some of the shell just to get to the machinery inside. To her surprise, there was a tank of Orichalcum contained inside the vehicle, exactly the same as the fuel used in G-diffusers, and unlike the latter, the former's tanks hadn't ruptured and the exotic particles inside it had been preserved somehow. She briefly wondered why what appeared to be a civilian vehicle would need something like that. Her question was answered when her headset alerted her to a download that, surprisingly, was written in legible Cornerian, and showed a map of various points across the globe. She realized that it was a map of a portal network, not unlike the ones used for interplanetary trade routes. She quickly figured out the reason why, then wondered what had sent her a map of the portal network in the first place. Pushing aside the question for now, she set to work trying to safely remove the Orichalcum tack from the vehicle, hoping to use it to refill the G-diffusers' stores once she repaired them.

Fay couldn't stop grinning after bagging the Orichalcum tank, as she was already a step closer to fixing up her Arwing. She figured out fairly quickly that she could probably use the portal network, if it was still up, to travel around the planet quicker. She could find Miyu and they could return home together sooner. Now, she had to just get to the vehicle's engine so she could scrap it and use its parts to fix her Arwing's engine. In other words, she felt like she was at the top of the world and nothing could stand in her way.

That feeling disappeared quickly when the sound of superheated plasma lanced through the air only centimeters from her head. Fay's fur practically stood on end as she drew her 12-S rifle in anticipation of a fight. Her finger rested on the trigger as she tried to find the shooter. She started to move, intending to get behind the vehicle she'd been working on, and felt a sharp, intense, stinging pain on her thigh as a plasma beam grazed it. Without her willing it, her finger squeezed the trigger and discharged a laser in the general direction she'd been aiming. Her hand shot down to the cut and she ducked behind the vehicle. She looked back up for a moment to try and spot the shooter. Another laser shot past her and she ducked once again. She switched on her headset and activated another program. This one was a relic from the Lylat War, one she hadn't updated in a long time due to a surprising lack of a need for it. The program allowed her to intercept transmissions and decrypt them if encrypted. "...is injured. I repeat, target is injured. Move in."

She popped the plasma cartridge out of the rifle to check it. She realized that she had no idea how many opponents she was up against, but hoped that it was less than twenty-three. She checked the Interceptor program and was shocked to find that it had lost the signal. "Damn," She cursed as she heard footsteps on the street she was on. She spent a moment psyching herself up for this, then shot up from behind the car, rifle at the ready. She fired a couple shots at the three Venomian Remnants as she half-ran, half-limped across the street to get behind another vehicle. She had to know what she was up against, and if she couldn't intercept their communications, she was left to guess that there were maybe four or five Remnants in the area. With only twenty-one shots and two extra cartridges containing thirty shots worth of plasma left, she realized that she'd have to be quick and precise with her shots, something she'd openly admit that Miyu was better at.

Fay briefly considered firing over her cover, but without a way to see where she was aiming, she figured she was more likely to hit no-one. She stood up and fired a couple lasers, managing to hit one of them in the chest, before a red beam sliced through her right shoulder. She retreated behind cover as her shoulder started to feel like it was burning. Her arm was moving, and upon inspection, she found that the laser had only broken through the upper layers of skin under the fur. Enough that she was bleeding, but she was lucky that it didn't do much more than that. Doing her best to ignore the pain, she mounted her rifle on the hood of the vehicle and took aim. She was about to fire when yet another laser hit her, this time hitting her right in the side. Gasping, she pressed a hand against the open wound and looked behind her to see a Remnant with a Sniper Rifle in hand. He got the drop on her and she realized her only option was to retreat. She was just about to when she heard a clinking. She looked down to see a cylindrical object that she recognized all too late as the flash-bang went off. Her ears were ringing and her eyesight shot, she staggered for a moment, trying to regain her balance, when something slammed into her. She hit the ground as her vision started to clear up and she saw the three remaining Remnants standing over her. She could see one of them speaking, and her hearing started to return quick enough for her to hear him speaking, "...ot just any canine, she's Fay Spaniel of Star Lynx. But, more importantly, she's an engineer. She'll get us off this planet, once she comes around." The Remnant in the center of the trio looked at the sniper, "Make sure she doesn't bleed out before we need her." He gestured to the other Remnant, who pulled his rifle back, before shoving the stock into her face.

* * *

A/N

→ I've read many of those "Star Fox meets Human" fanfics where the status of Earth is never actually specified, only the status of Lylat's planets. Just as this is my take on the "Crashing on Earth" plot, this is my take on Earth's status, definitely not the modern Earth of the Real World that we know today.

→ Original Content (12-S, Orichalcum) used with permission, credit goes to Tobias Umbra.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions).

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

* * *

When Fay opened her eyes again, she immediately regretted it. There was a blinding light in front of her and a throbbing soreness from her head to her nose and she felt certain that something must have been broken inside of her. As her eyes adjusted to her surroundings, she looked around and realized she could still move. She sat up and looked around. Whatever the room she was in, it looked vaguely like a cell, but ancient. When she began actually looking around the room, she realized that it was a cell, if the metal bars and the canine on the other side clothed in the armor of a Venomian Remnant and holding a sniper rifle was any indication. The canine gripped his radio and spoke into it, informing an unknown receiver of her condition.

She walked up to the bars and gripped them. The 'guard' responded by tightening his grip on his sniper rifle and addressing her, "You won't get very far, even if you broke those bars. Whoever built these prisons had designed them to have one way in and out. We'd find you before you even reach it."

Fay let go of the bars, "So why am I here?" The guard remained silent, prompting her to try and look around. She couldn't see much, but there were other cells that she could see across from her. In one of the cells, it looked like someone had moved a small medical lab in, using the next-door cells for additional lab-space and storage. She could see one more floor below hers and one more floor above, but it didn't give her much of an idea of how big the building was. The guard suddenly straightened up and Fay looked to see another Venomian Remnant, a scientist if his outfit was anything to go by. He straightened his white coat and grinned at her. Were he not wearing the same Venomian Remnant armor under that coat, she would have thought his smile was genuine.

He greeted her in a pleasant tone of voice, "Fay Spaniel of Star Fox, I presume?"

Fay did her best to not clench her teeth as she answered, "It's Star Lynx. I left a while back. Now what do you want?"

The scientist simple smiled, "Yes, my apologies. I haven't been able to keep with the changing times, unfortunately. In light of recent circumstances however, I feel that perhaps we could put aside our differences for the greater good? I understand that you had found the components needed to build a G-diffuser, yes? Well, as luck would have it, we've been in dire need of one, and unfortunately, the only engineer we'd found since crashing here disappeared a few hours ago and has gone completely radio-silent. Until he shows up again, I fear we must assume the worst and instead ask for your assistance." He waved to someone beyond Fay's line of sight and suddenly, all the doors to the cells opened, including Fay's cell. The scientist gestured to her injuries, "Before you make your decision, I would like to get those injuries checked first. Should you choose to help us, it makes no sense to have you feeling any less than 110%, does it?" Fay elected to remain silent as the burning pain from the injuries from her previous encounter flared up and she did her best to hold back pained tears as she pressed a hand to her side. She found a bandage covering the wound and briefly glanced at it. "I did take the liberty of patching you up as much as I could. No use letting you die now, is there?"

Fay finally spoke to the medic, having figured out what his purpose was, "Why all the questions and hospitality? You expecting me to suddenly turn sympathetic to the same people who shot me earlier, then locked me up?"

Fay was surprised to see the scientist continue smiling, "Frankly, it's because you are our only hope of getting off this world, and as it is, I'm the only reason you're still alive." The medic stepped into the cell with her and walked up to her. She felt quite uncomfortable having him get up in her personal space as he whispered into her ear, "Trust me when I say that I don't hold much power over them, and I don't have to treat any injuries they inflict if you choose not to help us." Fay shivered somewhat, especially when he put a gloved hand around her shoulder and escorted her out of the cell, "Now, let's go check up on those laser burns."

Once they arrived in the medic's lab, he had her lay down on a table and began unwrapping the bandages surprisingly gently. He examined her shoulder wound first, and quickly determined that it was already healing well, but he reapplied a medical gel and a bandage. Fay decided that, with nothing better to do, she might try to get some information, "So, what led you to become a medic?"

The medic chuckled, "Is that what you determined I was? Well, close enough I suppose. I was a Genetics Engineer and Bioweapons Technician. However, I did need to study enough about the Lylatian body to be able to treat injuries, especially since some of the experiments got a bit... how shall I say... messy." Fay instantly glanced at her shoulder bandage, to which the scientist replied, "Don't worry about any infections. Most of the bioweapons were already destroyed by Star Fox during the Lylat War. That's why I became a doctor instead." The medic sounded a bit mournful, then resumed his cheery disposition as he checked her midriff injury, "Looks like this'll recovery within a few weeks. I would definitely recommend an assistant if you're going to do any tinkering or repairs until then."

He patched her midriff up, then moved to her thigh injury. Almost immediately, Fay tensed up and the medic immediately noticed, "...That would be low, even for me. However, I do need to check that burn, so I would appreciate if this wasn't awkward." Fay shot as fierce a glare at him as she could muster, prompting him to say, "I am sworn to do no harm, as a doctor. I would especially never stoop so low as to take advantage of your current state, and so help the poor fool who dares to even touch you inappropriately. If such happens, do not be afraid to tell me, because so help me, I'll castrate them myself, even if that defies my oath." Fay was confused about whether to feel relieved or terrified, but she didn't stop him as he checked her laser burn. He finished the check-up and dismissed her, giving her a quiet warning that stopped her in her tracks for a few moments, "However, that's as far as my protection extends, so don't expect me to play bodyguard. And don't try to escape. We're letting you out of your cell because you're no use to us inside of it. If we feel you can't help us as an engineer, we can always use a hostage."

* * *

For a few brief, but tense moments, Miyu was aware that she was awake, but found that she couldn't move, something that made those few moments seem like hours as her body caught up with itself. The instant she felt like she could move, she flinched and shook herself awake. Looking around at the decrepit room she had taken refuge in during the night, she briefly recalled what had led her to that room. Sunlight filtered by the curtains led her to get up off what used to be a couch and check her supplies. Her stomach growled and she decided to go on ahead and eat part of one of the rations she brought with her.

After a short (and mildly depressing) feast, Miyu picked up her remaining supplies and her EE-40 pistol, she prepared to leave, but checked her map first to ensure that she was heading in the right direction. She did a double-take the instant she realized something had changed with her map. It had been altered to show a much more detailed map of the surrounding area as well as a more accurate fix on the location of what she assumed to be Fay's Arwing, as well as the locations of Remnant Air and Spacecraft that were all but rough estimates on her own Arwing's computer. She wondered what could've given her the obvious upgrade to her helmet's systems, but had to put that aside when she saw a group of red dots moving near the yellow dot representing her. She shut the map down and readied her pistol when she heard voices just outside the building. Miyu crawled toward the window and leaned against the wall, readjusting her positioning to get a glimpse outside the window.

A group of four Remnants had paused what was likely either a search for materials or a patrol in the middle of the street. Pushing aside the curtain ever so slightly with her right hand, she tried to intercept their conversations, hoping they were keeping contact with other groups so she'd know her odds. "...e've got nothing on our end. No signs of life or salvage. Bravo? Delta? How are things looking for you?"

"Same situation, Victor One. Nothing but these damnable relics that Bravo Three can't get working. Bravo Two hasn't found any traces of other life-forms or even other teams."

"Delta Four reporting, I may have found something and request regrouping to our position."

"Roger. What have you found, Delta Four?"

"I suspect it may be an access point to what I can only assume to be a sort of warp network spanning the whole planet, like a much smaller version of an Orbital Gate. It still seems to work as well, which could give us the advantage we need in finding our allies and getting off this Lyla-forsaken planet."

Miyu paused for a brief moment, as one of the Remnants spoke, "Victor Team, be advised. We're picking up an unknown signal near your location, possible hostile, be prepared to engage." Miyu shut off her interceptor and muttered a curse when the Remnants began walking toward her building. Holstering her pistol, she made haste out of the room and began searching around for a way out. On her way out, she noticed something on the table in the room that wasn't there the night before. It was a black cloak, and under the cloak was a note. She stuffed the note away for later and slipped the cloak on, throwing the hood up over her head and opening the door. She checked down one hallway and saw nothing, but heard heavy footfalls that gave away the positions of the Remnants that were searching the building for her. She wasn't certain, but she had the feeling that they didn't know what exactly to expect, which gave her the element of surprise. However, while she had seen them, she didn't have the clearest idea of what firepower they were packing. She began putting together a plan, she just needed to get an idea of their strengths.

She moved out of the room she was in and into the room across the hall, hoping to throw them off just long enough to take them down. She left her headset in that room as bait, given that the signal it was sending to local satellites was most likely what they were tracking, while she watched the hallway through the crack in the door. Sure enough, one of the Remnants came by, making a silent gesture for two others to flank either side of the door and the fourth one to wait behind him just in case. She checked carefully. Their weapons were 12-S rifles, not unlike the blaster she would've preferred if it hadn't been rendered scrap metal by the crash. As she suspected, the Remnants had somehow found her headset's signal and tracked it. This gave her the opportunity she needed. She all but pulled the door off its hinges as she grabbed the Remnant nearest to her, wrapping her arm around his neck, and leveled her blaster on the Remnant to her left. He went down immediately with an additional hole in his face as Miyu fired her pistol again, this time hitting the Remnant in the room she was in right as he had turned at the sound of the first Remnant's yell. The third Remnant tried to shoot her, but he wasn't fast enough as Miyu had a blaster in his face and pulled the trigger before he could speak.

With all but one of her enemies down, she removed the helmet from her captive to keep the Remnant from calling for back-up, revealing an Arctic Fox with blue eyes. "So what are you going to do now? Kill me? If so, then just get it over with, because I would rather die than be a prisoner."

Miyu pressed her pistol against the fox's chin, "Keep the attitude up, and I will grant your last request. However, I'm really angry right now and instead want answers, so you're staying alive." She grabbed the rifle out of the Remnant's hand and tossed it aside. She then pushed the Remnant into the room ahead of them. The Remnant tripped over the corpse of her colleague and fell over. Miyu took a moment to retrieve and holster the rifle she'd tossed aside moments ago. She returned her attention to the Remnant, having recovered from her fall and reaching for her fallen comrade's rifle, to which Miyu pointed her blaster and snarled at the Remnant, "Don't."

The Remnant raised her hands to show her compliance, "Alright, you win. What can I do for you?"

Miyu didn't lower the blaster, "I want answers. Why did you attack the Orbital Gate? What did you hope to accomplish?"

The Remnant glared back at her and asked, "What guarantees do I have? Why should I even bother sharing any information? Why not just shoot me now like you did my partners?"

Miyu had to resist the urge to do exactly that, "You want guarantees? You better prove that I can trust that anything you say isn't a lie. I'm not in the mood to tolerate lying right now. Do that and I might consider bringing you off this Hellhole of a world too."

The fox's glare softened a bit, "Alright, I suppose that's enough of a guarantee. We were contacted by the scientists at the Gate, saying they were doing an off the book test-run, and wanted to hire us to guard the Gate from the inevitable chance of the Cornerian Military getting wind of it."

Miyu raised an eyebrow, "Funny, I was contacted by one of the scientists there, saying that they were under attack, and you were trying to capture the Gate."

The fox gave her a suspicious glance, "You attacked us first! For all I know, you were hired by General Pepper to take down the Gate."

Miyu gritted her teeth, "The General never made contact with us." She glared daggers at the fox, "Alright, next question, and if you're honest, I might feel nice enough to not turn you over to the authorities."

The fox responded, "You want honesty? Or do you just want to hear what _you_ want to hear, murderer?"

Miyu scoffed, "Look who's talking. Now answer my questions or so help me, things will be very painful for you."

The fox crossed her arms, "Fine, ask away. It's not like I can return to the Remnants after this."

Miyu's eyes narrowed, "Where is your base of operations? Are there any other bases you know of?"

The fox sighed, "Alright, the base that my unit used to live in is about 20 meters away from here in the direction we came from. Beyond that, there's a few more bases that we know of, one of them mobile. You can probably get their locations from my brother's headset." She gestured to one of the corpses.

Miyu paused for a moment, briefly staggered mentally, before regaining her composure, "I'm not gonna fall for that trick. No chance." She moved to grab her own headset and slipped it on, "Now take off your armor."

The fox's jaw dropped, "You're kidding me?"

Miyu growled, "You're the only one who's suit isn't stained with your own blood and you look roughly the same size and mass as me. Now take your damn armor off and give it to me!" The fox jumped at Miyu's sudden anger, but grudgingly complied.

As she unzipped a zipper in the back of her armor, she asked, "You're not kidding. So what will I get to wear in place of this? Or am I no longer needed afterwards?"

Miyu sighed, her guilt starting to catch up to her, her conscience telling her to lay off the anger a bit and show a little mercy. She reached into her pack and pulled out a spare vest, which she'd kept in the event that her main vest got torn, "If you don't want to freeze at night, this should make enough of a difference."

The fox, after having stripped down to a flight suit and slipped into the vest, handed the armor to Miyu, "I hope they figure out who you are."

Miyu ignored the threat and instead slipped on the armor, "Well, I wasn't completely wrong. I fit, mostly." Miyu briefly glanced down at the cuirass of her suit, "This feels a bit tight, though."

The fox growled at her, "You're one to talk. _You_ left _your_ vest on." Miyu's guilt decided to go on break, and in a flash, she sucker-punched the fox right in the nose. The fox recoiled, "Mother-!"

Miyu cocked an eyebrow, "You want off this world? Quit your complaining and show me where your base is. Because I'm not sure I trust the directions you gave me."

The fox's ears flattened against her head, "What benefit do I have from lying to you?"

Miyu raised her pistol and shoved it in the fox's face, "Leading me into a trap, free hostage? Getting me lost, run crying back to your superiors? No. How about you take me to your leader, Remnant?"

The fox sighed, "...Alright. If you survive, you better bring me back to Lylat with you."

Miyu paused to grab the rifle at their feet and sling it around her back, "One chance, that's all you get." The fox grunted a confirmation, then led Miyu onward.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (EE-40, 12-S, Lyla) used with permission, credit goes to Tobias Umbra.


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions).

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

Miyu followed the Remnant, 12-S rifle slung around her back, EE-40 pistol in hand, as she led her to her base. They headed down the path that the Remnant had given her, and sure enough, they were standing on a street overlooking a large wreck of a Remnant carrier ship. The ship had been largely stripped down to its frame and repurposed into an impromptu base. Miyu sighed, briefly thinking that maybe she should have taken off her vest before slipping into the surprisingly hot armor. She had, after they'd left the building, put the cloak on, and had yet to read the note on it. She opened up her journal program and added that as an objective, along with another one for exploring the alleged warp point that had been found.

The fox started to walk away and Miyu lifted her pistol up, "Where're you going?"

The fox glared at Miyu, "Far as I can tell, I'm not needed any longer. I'm getting a safe distance away from here, since I'm not gonna be welcome among them." At Miyu's inquiry, she replied, "Andrew had no tolerance for failures. Some of us still follow that philosophy. I go in there and I'll be gunned down where I stand." She turned in the opposite direction, "So, thanks for the clothes. I'll be sticking around the apartment. If you decide to go through with your promise, I'll probably be there... if I haven't starved to death by then."

Miyu grumbled, feeling that the Remnant was guilt-tripping her now. She took off her backpack and reached into it. She pulled out one of the rations she still had and held it out to the Remnant. The Remnant, in response, grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. Miyu was greeted with a sharp right cross in the face. She dropped the ration and her pistol and the Remnant grabbed her by the shoulders, slamming her knee into Miyu's midriff as hard as possible. As Miyu recoiled from the surprise attack, the Remnant roundhouse-kicked her, hitting the side of her head. Miyu's ear started ringing as she was knocked back to the ground. With the wind knocked out of her, she spent a moment gasping for breath, knowing full-well that she was open to attack. Her attacker saw the opportunity as well and moved in for the kill. She wrapped her arms around Miyu in a choke-hold. The lynx grabbed at the Remnant's arm in a panic, before noticing the pistol that she'd dropped sitting by her feet.

She grabbed it, relieved at being able to reach it, then turned it toward the Remnant. She squeezed the trigger and felt the Remnant's grip loosen. In a flash, Miyu took advantage and slipped out of the Remnant's grip. She turned around, expecting to see a cadaver, and instead found that her shot only nicked the Remnant's ear. She wasted no time in throwing a powerful left hook that hit the Remnant right in the face. She followed up with a right uppercut hitting right in the chin. She threw another punch that landed in the Remnant's chest with a satisfying crack. She moved in to finish the job, grabbing the Remnant's head and slamming her head into Miyu's raised knee. There was another crack and Miyu halted her assault.

The Remnant collapsed onto the ground, curled up into a ball and whimpering quietly, before daring to open a single eye and muttering, "Bitch."

Miyu shrugged, "You wanted a fight, you got it. As far as I care, you can find your own damn way off this planet."

The Remnant looked up, one eye shut and bleeding, "We had a deal."

Miyu turned to walk off, "And you broke it the instant you attacked me."

The Remnant yelled back, "You're no better leaving me for dead!" Miyu paused at the declaration.

She turned her head in the Remnant's direction, "Maybe I am no better, but your safety isn't my problem anymore."

Miyu noticed the dropped ration and briefly entertained a fantasy of just taking it with her and leaving the Remnant to starve, but thought better of it. She picked the ration up, took a couple cautious steps toward the Remnant, and set the ration down in next to her. She then turned and walked off, not wanting to waste any more time.

She made her way to the makeshift base, and made it into the construct unmolested, save for the occasional comment from one of the Remnants to another about her being the 'new blood.' At one point, one of the Remnants, a tall and somewhat muscular black-furred Ursine, eventually confronted her about her presence, "So, which squad were you in?"

"...Um, I kinda floated between the various squads. They didn't really know where to put me." Miyu winced slightly, hoping that the Remnant wouldn't notice it.

The Remnant seemed to buy it however, "I seem to recall a few Floaters being among the ranks that were sent here. Good thing you survived, we just lost contact with one of our other squads and we think that one of the local life-forms might have gotten them."

"Local life-forms? Does anyone even live here?"

The Remnant shrugged, "Not certain. However, there is undeniable proof all around us that this used to be inhabited. Possibly by a species similar to the Lylatian species, given the construction styles. It helps that we managed to recover a record related to the previous life-forms."

The mention of a record piqued Miyu's interests, "May I see the record?" The Remnant nodded and gestured for her to follow. He walked deeper into the base, with Miyu following close behind. As far as she could tell, her cover hadn't been blown yet, and was quietly grateful for the coincidence that let her get this far. The Remnant leading her was apparently a higher rank among the others, as he yelled a few orders to a few of the others.

He led her into one of the rooms that hadn't been taken apart completely by the ship and gestured to the black box on the table, "Here it is. Feel free to look at it, then come and see me when you're done. We'll get you filled in on other groups we've managed to reconnect with, since I'm certain you'll want to know." He gestured for the Remnants around him to leave the room. Her senses kicked into high gear in anticipation of a trap. She turned to see the Remnant sergeant grin at her and say, "Welcome back, soldier." In that moment, she realized that there wasn't a trap, so she settled down and decided to open up the recording's video files.

Her headset, which she had kept under her cloak in a compact form, activated and downloaded the files, opening up the holographic interface for her. Unsurprisingly, and somewhat irritably, a majority of the files were corrupted, presumably from however many years of entropy they had been untouched for. There were a few files that she was thankfully able to keep as she cleared out the corrupted files. She decided to watch the first of the four available videos.

Once again, the 'human' appeared on the screen. He seemed a bit exhausted. He sighed and placed a hand on his face before speaking, "Today's been another letdown. Once again, when we think we have the solution to a problem, it slips out of our grasp. Our potential cure involved basic programming to try and fix the corrupted data afflicting the Nanites. But there's more to it than that." He paused to look away from the camera, then turned back, "We did make one discovery today that might help deal with the problem. Under certain circumstances, it is possible for a Krazoa to inhabit a human body if they possess the right kind of soul for it. The same kind that nearly all Cerinians seem to have, with exceptions." He sat up straighter, "Souls are still just as new to us as the concept of magic. Because we never had the technology to even detect them, science had always dismissed the concept of a soul as purely philosophical. But, because the Universe just loves fucking with us, it turns out that we _were_ wrong and there are ways to detect and understand souls. Which is part of how we discovered certain ways to modify our own souls to make Krazoa inhabitation possible."

The scientist paused, "The problem with it is that, without any truly safe way or the time needed to test the technology beforehand, we killed our first two test subjects before we figured it out properly." He paused, and it looked like tears were falling from his eyes, "Goddammit, no-one deserves to die like that... Their screams will haunt me forever." He wiped the tears and resumed his log, "We've figured it out somewhat. We might have discovered a way to prevent ourselves from being infected by the nanovirus, but it won't stop the infection from killing us. From what I hear, Jesse's been working around the clock to devise a possible way to kill the infection at the source: A self-activated virus to delete vital routines and force the nanites to disassemble themselves." He slammed a hand on the desk, "We can't fix them! The nanovirus tears apart the host cell to make new structures, meaning all hopes of a cure went down the drain and we've been wasting all our time trying to develop a cure code that can't work!" He placed his face in his hands, "...Our only hope is to survive now, and to kill them before they kill us." His breath shuddered, before he reached and shut off the recording.

Miyu's eyes widened a bit and she found herself muttering, "By Lyla..." She shook her head a few times, making a note to save the remaining three for later. She looked around the room, then outside, where she saw the Remnant sergeant standing over an impromptu table, with a small jury-rigged Holograph displaying a map of the planet. She recalled that one of the video logs she had seen might have referred to the planet as looking very different. The Remnant soldiers on the opposite side of the table took note of her and gestured to the sergeant.

Without sparing a glance, he gestured to the world map, "Quite the planet we're stuck on, huh?"

Miyu raised an eyebrow under her helmet, "What do you mean by that?"

"Besides the rather unnerving similarities between this world and numerous worlds back in the Lylat System, it would seem that this world had a similar connection to the mystical."

"...Can you explain?"

"Do you recall Sauria? The planet contained a source of dark energy that threatened to rip it apart. Before I became a sergeant, I was stationed in orbit around the planet to monitor its progress and hopefully stop it. We had plans to try and win the locals to our side by stopping the crisis ourselves."

"So why didn't you?"

"That damnable Star Fox did the job for us, and gave the locals reason to rally behind the Cornerian flag. It gave us the opportunity to analyze how Fox McCloud did it however. We discovered the dark matter seals used to plug the dark energy vents and contain it, but we couldn't explain how the planet generated dark energy or how the 'SpellStones' absorbed it."

"How is the Saurian Crisis relevant to this planet?"

"Because of magic."

"I'm sorry?"

"...I'll repeat myself once and only once. This world and Sauria both had connections to the 'magic' that the Cerinians, the Krazoa, the Saurians, and apparently this world's species seemed so uniquely attuned to. Though, with this species, who called themselves 'humanity,' it seems their mystical gifts were forced upon themselves, to survive a 'nanovirus' plague."

"You realize how crazy a lot of this sounds, right? _Magic_?! That's the stuff you find in fiction!"

"Andross would've said otherwise, since magic is, in a sense, what brought him back from oblivion, if only for a few brief minutes. And what birthed many of humanity's weapons against the Nanovirus."

"Weapons? I only watched one of the records, because I didn't want to keep you waiting."

"Ah. The other bases, right. So you probably know nothing of what they called the Technopathy."

"What? That's not a real word."

"The humans invented it. The art is apparently what brought beings known as Technopaths to reality, based on the abilities of certain Cerinians. They were cyborgs enhanced with cybernetic implants to combat the Nanomorphic life-forms the Nanovirus made. They were, in a sense, living machines. Thanks to those records, we also know that the humans had advanced stasis technology that they used to preserve their warriors as well as themselves until a time that 'Earth,' as they called it, would be safe for them."

The sergeant directed Miyu's attention to the cluster of green dots on the projection marking the locations of other Remnant bases, clustered in a small area near one of the oceans on the planet along with a couple red dots. The projection reorganized itself to show a topographical map of the local area, with the locations spaced out so she could see them clearly. He explained what the green dots were, "Since the records we've found are in this area, we've begun searching here for any of these sleeping warriors. With luck, their unique powers will aid our cause to take back the Lylat System."

Miyu made a silent note to herself that she'd have to ensure that didn't happen, then gestured to the two red dots, "What do those mean?"

The sergeant's face contorted into a snarl, "That's where our enemies landed." Miyu's eyes widened as he gestured to the two locations. One of them was her Arwing, which she asked about. The sergeant replied with a note of stress, "The closer of the two crash sites was apparently abandoned, and nothing of value was found there. While I told you that we lost contact with one group, and the possibility of local life-forms hunting them, we likewise haven't ruled out the possibility that one of those Star Lynx whores is at large."

Miyu's eyelid gave an involuntary twitch at the insult, but she asked about the other crash site, "And what of the other site?"

The sergeant gave her a small grin, "We've managed to capture that pilot. She's currently being held at this facility, where some of our best soldiers are likewise stationed. I've no doubt that with some 'persuasion,' she'll be helping them fix their ship in no time at all."

Miyu's eyes widened and a small, barely audible gasp conveying shock, fear, anger, and excitement, escaped her mouth. When she met the gaze of one Remnant across the table, she clamped her mouth shut. There was a moment of awkward silence before Miyu asked, "You've established contact with the base right?" The sergeant nodded, prompting Miyu to ask, "Who do you know that's alive there?"

"Yeah, we've reestablished contact with most of them, with only two members of that unit unaccounted for."

"Good, I need to go see them."

The sergeant turned to her, "Soldier?"

Miyu stood up and repeated herself, "I need to go see them." She thought carefully about her next sentence as she said it, "They could use the extra hand."

The sergeant seemed hesitant, "Well... You only just got here. We could use the help with our own base."

"You said it yourself, one of the members of Star Lynx is there."

The sergeant seemed to acknowledge this, "Good point. Considering the trouble Star Fox has given us, I don't dare want to find out what kind of damage one of Star Lynx can do if she gets out." He gestured to one of the two soldiers directly across from him, "Take Riley with you. Watch his back and he'll watch yours."

Miyu nodded. The Remnant in question moved to stand next to her. The sergeant nodded to the two of them, then saluted them, "Lyla protect you."

* * *

Fay sat by the side-lines, watching the tiger Remnant that had been assigned as her 'apprentice' try to work on their ship. The starship had crashed through the roof and damaged most of the structures inside it, but against all odds, and to her initial dismay, the walls had remained standing. Now, she had, as per the doctor's orders, been given an apprentice to help her fix their ship, and among other things, install a new G-diffuser in the ship. The apprentice was moving slowly, carelessly, clearly showing his ineptitude with the same tools that she had long ago mastered the usage of. He picked up a crowbar and shoved it into a gap in the paneling on top of the drop-ship, near the back. Her eyes looked on with interest, before she stood up, drawing a sharp breath at the sudden pain in her side. She rubbed the area, aware of the bandages the doctor had applied.

As she walked toward the ladder with the intent to climb it, she wasn't certain what was more irritating, the fact that she was helping her enemies, that a Remnant medic had treated her wounds, or that repairing their ship was the only way she could possibly get home. She sighed, thinking back to the _Livid Vixen_ , their own personal spacecraft carrier/battleship. If anything, Saru, the third member of Star Lynx, probably realized they were missing, and if he hadn't hired one of the other mercenary teams, was probably searching the Lylat System himself for them. She was torn from her thoughts by another pain, this time in her shoulder. "Dammit," she muttered to herself and rested her head against one of the rungs on the ladder. Forcing herself to continue, she continued her climb up the ladder and approached the Remnant once she reached the top, "What are you doing?"

The Remnant turned and snarled at her, "I'm doing what you instructed and opening up the ship so we can replace some of the wiring to the G-diffusers." He stood up, leaving the crowbar lodged in the armor plating of the ship. He stalked toward her and asked, "Am I not doing it exactly like how you would?"

Fay met his glare with her own, "The way you're doing it, you do more harm to this ship than good. You keep using the crowbar like that and you'll damage the wiring and the supports as well as the panel." She wasn't lying, her 'apprentice' had instead bent the panel and warped it, but she wanted to stall as long as possible, with the hopes that she could figure out a plan to get out of their grasp. She had considered some options to take on the soldier in front of her already, though she was a bit concerned about it. Of the three of them, Miyu was better at melee and ranged combat, whereas Fay focused more on engineering and programming. If she caught the soldier off-guard after they repaired the ship, she could probably overpower him quickly and steal the ship. At the moment though, she could only continue to help them. She pointed toward the box of tools, "Get the hammer and fix that panel. I'll show you how to use the crowbar myself if I have to." The Remnant turned around and she deliberately muttered aloud, "You'd think you could figure out a simple tool like a crowbar."

The Remnant turned right around to face her and growled, before pushing her back. Her shoulder flared up at the rough contact and Fay grunted, rubbing the laser burn. The Remnant pushed into her personal space, "You better not get smart with me, because I'm not in the mood to put up with it. I hear another snide comment out of you and those cuts will be the least of your worries."

Fay rolled her eyes, "Then listen to me next time I explain how you open up an access panel." She turned to go back down the ladder when a fist struck her spine and sent her tumbling forward. She twisted to try and land on her side, realizing too late that it was her bad shoulder that was going to take the brunt of her fall. A pained yelp escaped her lips as she curled up instinctively.

Heavy footfalls betrayed her aggressor's approach, followed by his deep growling, "I could end you right now if I wanted, save all of us the trouble of doing it later. We could take your head with us on a pike to send a message." She was forcefully rotated onto her back as the Remnant loomed over her, murderous intent in his eyes, pinning her arms to the ship. Fay was terrified, but angry at the same time, and uncertain which was more obvious.

"Daniel! Stand down, right now!" A new voice, one that sounded oddly familiar to Fay, snapped the Remnant out of his rage-induced trance.

He looked up to see another Remnant garbed in a red and black armor with a helmet obscuring his face and yelled back, "But sergeant, she's done nothing but cause trouble! She hasn't lifted a finger to help! Instead, she sees fit to whine and gripe about every little thing!"

The sergeant yelled at Daniel, "Doctor's orders are that she isn't to perform any strenuous activities until her wounds heal, which you've no doubt worsened."

"With all due respect, sergeant-"

"I will shoot you where you stand if you don't back off right this instant, Daniel! I'm not putting up with any bullshit from any of you while we're stranded on this backwater Hellhole!" At the sergeant's verbal lashing, Daniel begrudgingly let go of Fay, who scrambled back to her feet and slid down the ladder, stumbling and wincing from her thigh injury.

The sergeant gestured for Fay to follow him. Not wanting to get killed by either him or the angry cat, she followed right behind him. They walked in silence down the hall before he commented, "Foolish as that was, I must admit that was actually kinda awesome." Fay ignored him for a moment, before feeling a stinging coldness in her wrists. She held them up and saw blood. The sergeant also noticed, "We should get you patched up. I swear, he gets more and more unrestrained the longer we're here."

Fay snapped at the sergeant, "When did you give a damn about my health?!"

She was surprised to see the Remnant sergeant tap a button on the left side of his helmet, causing the visor and mouth-guard to raise up, revealing an ape under the armor, "Because I'm in the same boat as you."

Fay raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "Who are you?"

The ape replied, "Albert Germaine Finch." If Fay's confused face was anything to go by, she had never heard of him, so 'Albert' elaborated, "I'm a spy for the Cornerian Military. Figured you'd know me more by the childhood nickname my stepbrother gave me, Algy."

Fay's eyes widened, "You're Saru's stepbrother?"

Algy nodded, "Indeed. Now, back to the matter at hand." He tapped the button on his helmet and the mask slid back into place. He guided her down the hallways to the medical lab.

When the doctor asked about her injuries, Algy only mentioned 'Daniel,' which was sufficient enough for the doctor to tell Fay that he's going to find someone else to help with the repairs. He gave Fay a warning as he wrapped her wrists up with the medical tape, "Steer clear of Daniel from now on. I'll bring him in for a psychological evaluation, but don't push him any further."

Fay was curious about the Remnant in question, "Is he always like that?"

The doc's concern couldn't have been more obvious, "No, but since we regrouped, he's been more irritable lately. More so than most, that is." He paused once again to repeat his warning, "You be careful around him. You be careful around everyone here. Far as we can tell, you're the closest we have to a mechanic."

Fay rolled her eyes, "Oh ye of little faith."

The Doc glared at her, "That is what I'm talking about. You need to learn when it's better to stay quiet. Now get some rest, those injuries aren't exactly gonna heal themselves. I'll take care of Daniel's psych-eval."

As Fay was escorted back to her cell, she found herself staring at Algy, who had become silent. He brought her to the cell and muttered a quiet "Sorry for this," in her ear before shoving her into the cell and closing the gate behind her. She stumbled for a moment, then regained her balance.

She glared back at him, before walking up to him and quietly asking, "You got a plan?"

"Yeah, I've been analyzing each of the members of this squad. Apparently they call themselves the Crimson Squad."

"Sure put a lot of thought into that name, didn't they?"

"Crimson's the color of fresh blood. These guys are renowned for having the highest kill-count out of all Remnants. It's fitting. Anyway, these people are trained killers and assassins, even the doctor."

"He did say he was a genetics engineer, or something like that."

"Anyways, I've been assessing their strengths and weaknesses, because I've been thinking that if we get that ship repaired and we can overpower whoever is on guard at the time, we have a free ride out of here."

"You'll blow your cover for one, and two, I'm not alone here."

Algy sighed rubbed the back of his helmet, his rifle by his side. "Yes, I'm aware of your ally. I plan on picking him-"

Fay interrupted him, " _Her_."

"Sorry, I plan on picking her up on our way out. The previous engineer, before he disappeared, had managed to get a bead on the Orbital Gate we arrived through. It's located in the planet's asteroid ring. He had apparently discovered it through one of the recordings, one that gave mention of the ring being a moon before it was destroyed."

"Why was... No, you still haven't told me what you're gonna do about your identity."

"I'll return to Corneria. I have valuable information that paints this planet as a future point of interest."

"Why?"

Algy was silent about her inquiry, "...Classified."

Fay growled and crossed her arms, mindful of her wrist bandages. She watched as Algy walked away from the bars and leaned against the handrail. She stifled a yawn and realized that it might not be a bad idea to rest a bit. She had a plan of her own going on as well, but seeing as Algy's went along with hers point for point, she decided to stick to it. She realized that she had a possible bargaining chip to get more information out of him, her curiosity having been piqued. The next yawn interrupted her train of thought and she curled up on the cold, stone floor to try and get at least some rest, feeling like she'd have a long day ahead of her.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (12-S Rifle, EE-40 Pistol, Lyla, 'Finch') used with permission. Credit goes to Tobias Umbra.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions)

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

* * *

Sleep, while initially blank, eventually gave way to pleasant dreams that, when Fay woke up, were difficult to remember, aside from one detail that left her tearing up, "Miyu..." She rubbed a bandaged hand across her eyes as she heard the cell door open. She tried to look as angry as possible and turned to face the Remnant in her cell. She saw the masked helmet and after a moment, realized that it was none other than Algy. Nonetheless, she stood up, doing her best to ignore the pain from the various wounds she had accumulated in the past couple days.

She was escorted to the medical wing and the doctor, after checking her injuries, including her recent wrist injuries, introduced her to her new assistant, an older ursine who introduced himself as John. When Fay asked about Daniel, the doctor said nothing and simply gestured for the group to get out of his sight.

She gave John some basic instructions related to the wiring that was left woefully unfinished after their debacle with Daniel the previous day, then asked Algy about it. The spy was a bit less tight-lipped about Daniel, "You didn't hear it from me, but Daniel went berserk during his psych-eval, almost gave the doc a concussion... with a cotton ball."

"Do you know why he went psycho-killer? Did it ever happen before?" Fay asked, sparing a quick survey of the room to make sure that John was still working, and no-one else was around.

"According to Dr. Milton, no. Daniel's not the only one either. One of the other Remnant survivors that came by here apparently went insane as well. He's in a straitjacket in one of the far cells, rambling about hearing voices and seeing things." Algy glanced around as well, just to be certain of their privacy before continuing, "I'm not normally superstitious, but I'm hearing talk from the remaining sane Remnants of something not wanting us here... and honestly, I'm starting to think the same thing."

Fay's eyes widened a bit, "'Something not wanting us here?' Like ghosts? That's ridiculous. Ghosts are children's stories." For some odd reason, hearing herself say those words felt wrong, like they were hollow.

Algy nodded, "I've always thought the same. But if not ghosts, something powerful. For all we know, we've disturbed something with our presence, and after the whole Aparoid fiasco, I'm not keen on facing another shapeshifting plague."

Fay shrugged, "Star Lynx was doing a Salvage job near Eladard, we didn't even hear about the Aparoids until we got back from there." Eladard, one of the outermost planets in the Lylat System, was one of the older sources of Lylat's major technological developments, before the inner planets caught up with it, and their more centralized locations cut Eladard out. Surprisingly enough, it was one of the select few planets that was either ignored or spared by the Aparoids, and a communications black-out that the monsters had caused meant that Eladard, and Star Lynx at the time, received no word of the invasion. Fay was still a bit confused about the whole Aparoid deal in the first place, with the only clear picture she had was that they invaded and that Star Fox, Star Wolf, and the Cornerian Military had annihilated them.

After their little discussion, Fay decided that now was as good a time as any to get some information on a different subject, "You know, I did happen to find a vid-log a little while back, before I... ended up here."

Algy caught on immediately, "I'm not saying anything. I've already said too much as it is."

"This place being a future point of interest for the Cornerian Military? The fact that you're undercover? Yeah, you've said too much already." Fay kept her voice down, "This recording I have, it's got something that I think might be worth something." She was no stranger to bargaining, though that was normally Fara's area of expertise, given her business background, but that didn't mean Fay hadn't picked up a few tricks of the trade.

Algy took the bait, "Alright. We've found something here. We're not sure what they are. All we know is that they're the key to unlocking a majority of humanity's ancient weapons and technology, as part of what another record that a sergeant had shared with us. Apparently, after whatever event it was that caused their steady downfall, the survivors rounded up whatever technology they could salvage and locked it in a vault. None of us have seen it yet, but all we know is that we need the blood of a human or a Cerinian to open the DNA lock on it."

Fay was confused by bits of the new information, "What's a humanity? How are they connected to Cerinia? What was the event that brought their downfall?"

Algy shrugged, "No idea. Not even that sergeant we've been collaborating with knows. He thinks it's something to do with something called a 'Technopath.' I don't think even he knows what that is. As for your first and second questions, 'humanity' is the native term the former inhabitants of this planet used as the name of their species. They had apparently hit a Golden Age of scientific advances when they made First Contact with Cerinia. It involved that Orbital Gate that I mentioned yesterday. Humanity had constructed it using the resources of another planet's moon and brought it into orbit around this world, which they called Earth. But when they activated it for a test run, the energies shattered Earth's moon, which they called 'Luna', by accident. This same test-run also connected to another Orbital Gate around Cerinia, which is how they made First Contact."

Suddenly, the fact that the Orbital Gate that Star Lynx and the Remnants were dogfighting over was able to send them here made more sense. She went on ahead and asked another question that was on her mind, "Why are you undercover?"

Algy looked around to make sure that no-one was watching, before lowering his voice, "We had reason to believe that the Remnants, or a splinter faction, may have been responsible for a radicalized group now calling themselves the Disciples of Andross, who've been responsible for a number of raids on various science facilities. I was investigating a lead about a connection to the two. However, all I've found about them is that the Remnants are as much in the dark about the Disciples as we are. All they know is that the group's being led by the self-proclaimed 'nephew' of Andross, Andrew Oikenny, and that they do a lot of research into the occult and mystical."

"Sounds like a bunch of loonies."

"Highly organized and heavily armed loonies with a definite agenda and numerous advantages, despite being a small and relatively new group. Word among one of the Remnant spies is that apparently, Andrew claims to have found a way to resurrect Andross, without using the Krazoa."

Fay made a note to ask about the Krazoa later, having never heard that term before, and instead held up the record device that the Remnants had neglected to remove from her person. "This has something important in it that could change everything we know about the history of the Lylat System. I believe you're telling the truth, but I don't think it's enough for me to just give it away. You still want it? Help me find Miyu and get off this planet."

Algy agreed to it, "I'd be willing to eliminate every Remnant base established here if needed."

* * *

"So, Riley." Miyu decided to ask to try and get her mind off the sudden silence that pervaded their somewhat lengthy trip to the base in question. She debated on what course of action to take regarding him, and at the moment, conversation seemed like a good way to pass the time, "How did you end up here?"

"I was shot down."

"I meant with the Remnants."

"How about you? Haven't seen you before."

Miyu was caught off-guard by that question and spent a moment trying to come up with a good story, "I... joined when I... about midway into the Lylat Wars. Ended up as... as a scouting pilot." She winced a bit, then asked, "What about you?"

Riley pulled out his 12-S rifle and looked around the area as he answered, "Engineer. Got drafted, decided to stay." He glanced at her briefly, "Now I'm here."

"...Rather straightforward, are you?"

"It's a talent. I prefer guns anyway."

Miyu realized that this was going nowhere quickly, so she checked the holo-map once again, "I'd suggest that we take a quick rest in that building over there." She pointed over at one of the many decrepit buildings. This particular building had a large sign that appeared to have fallen off a spot on the building and now rested on its side, next to the doorway.

"It's only been four hours."

For effect, she gave an exhausted sigh, "Four hours of nonstop walking. Not all of us are built like tanks."

"Good point. Don't rest for too long. We'll be needed soon."

Inside the building, it was just as much of a wreck on the inside as it was on the outside. Miyu gestured deeper inside the building, "Can you check and make sure it's clear?" The Remnant agreed without hesitation or question, and gave her the chance to be alone. She looked among the wreckage and soon found a fairly comfortable place to sit.

With nothing better to do, she decided to take a look at the note she had found alongside the cloak. She was a bit relieved to find the note intact, though a bit wrinkled. She looked to see if Riley had returned yet, then, once satisfied that he hadn't, opened the note to read it. "Clarice, this is my last message to you. Papa's gone and I'm hurt. Take my cloak and..." The unfinished sentence was punctuated with black stains that she realized was blood long since rusted over and dead for who knows how long. She checked the note for any other information, receiving no such luck. Sighing, she decided to try watching the other three vid-logs that she had, since they had information relevant to the goals of the Remnants that she needed.

Upon starting, the camera showed the same human from before, as he took a seat and faced it, "We've discovered something interesting related to those soul modifications I mentioned last time. Certain individuals with existing mental predispositions, their soul modifications actually change their bodies as well, which are affected even more so by Krazoa inhabitation. For some of them, they gain certain, supernatural enhancements to their existing physique, primarily the ability to perceive, act, and react much faster than a normal human being. Tests had shown that when a single second passes for a normal human, these 'superhumans' (as my colleagues first called them) can perceive twenty seconds. At that kind of perception, they can also move at what they perceive as a normal speed, while we see a blur. Another apparent supernatural enhancement is the ability to lift double their weight and absorb twice as much damage. However, the most prominent feature is the sharpening of their canines."

The human opened his mouth and gestured to his own jaw, pointing out the set of teeth that were notably sharper than the rest, "The changes brought on when a Krazoa inhabits a human body causes intense photophobic behaviors and haemovorous cravings. In other words, like the vampires from ancient myth. These have forced us to re-evaluate our techniques. Currently, out of the five souls we've modified, only one of them didn't become a vampire upon introduction of a Krazoa. He's been transferred to work on our next set of experimental technology. We've made some discoveries regarding the Cerinian brain structure and its interactions with pure Computronium, which is a form of programmable matter."

The human took in a deep breath, "More on that later... Now, time for a more personal update. We've... made a decision. Many of us have begun to believe that we've only got one option if we want any chance to stop the Nanovirus, and that's to evolve. So, we've set up a special division with the goal of creating an Ark that we'll send off-world. We've managed to reestablish contact with a group of Cerinians in orbit. The current Matriarch has agreed to oversee the safety of the Ark, and have found a suitable star system with habitable worlds." He paused to brush the sweat from his forehead, "I've agreed to donate some of my DNA to the project, as has Jesse. Even the kids donated a few strands. I know that what I'm doing is right, and it means giving someone else a fighting chance in the event that Containment fails, but I can't help feeling like we're just giving up. Like everything we've done is all for naught." He looked to be on the edge of breaking down into tears as he ended the video.

Miyu sat alone in silence for a bit, wondering what the next of the two videos would show when she heard Riley comment on it, "Seems a bit dramatic."

She jumped a bit, then turned to face him, "You're back! Uh... Anything to report?"

"Nothing. Kinda wanted to watch the next one."

"You haven't seen all of them? I figured that you would've."

"Never had time." At the answer, Miyu stood up and dusted off a small area next to her. While she wasn't too keen to trust the Remnant just yet, she figured that it wouldn't hurt to be a little less tense. She gestured for him to sit down and pulled up the next vid-log.

The video started with the human in his seat this time, "...We met a survivor today. I was excited to see a new face. We had no idea what kind of person we were letting into our fold until he attacked Jesse and any other Cerinians he could find..." The human sighed and rested his face in his hands for a moment before continuing, "...We stopped him and restrained him. One of the other scientists elected to interrogate him. I was initially all for it, but the longer we go, the more I come to regret that I permitted the use of... well, torture, to get information out of him. He revealed he was one of the bio-terrorists who tampered with the nanites' source code in the first place. That son of a bitch is the reason that we're going extinct. When we asked him about the group's motives, he claimed that 'Cerinians were a perversion of nature, living embodiments of the temptation to sin.' He claimed that what they were doing was, and I quote, 'a righteous genocide.'" He sighed again, before sniffing and rubbing his eye, "Genocide is never righteous, no matter what justification you have." He paused for a moment, his voice quavered as he spoke, "Sorry, I guess that may have been a bit dramatic. Jesse always said that was the one thing she loved and hated about me, that I was always so direct with my opinions..." As Miyu and Riley watched, the human buried his face in his arms. Quiet gasps and sniffs were heard, and when he human looked up, realizing that he had forgotten to shut off the camera, tears were falling, unrestrained, as he reached to turn off the camera.

Riley was left speechless, while Miyu could only mutter, "Sweet Lyla..." The last vid-log was a bit of a surprise to say the least. The two of them sat in silence for a little while, before Miyu finally found her voice and said, "Riley, I think a _nap_ might help us right about now." She hoped that she was able to convey that she didn't want to watch the last vid-log just in case.

Riley got the message, "You want first shift, or you want me to?"

Miyu waved to him, "I'll take the first shift. You go on ahead and sleep." Riley got up from his seat and proceeded to use some of the wreckage he found as a makeshift bed. When asked, he explained that he wanted a quick escape if the need should arise. She stayed by him for a while, unintentionally nodding off a bit on her own.

After a light doze, Miyu shook herself awake and realized that Riley was out like a light. She made a quick decision, coming to the conclusion that if she remained with Riley, she was liable to put herself at greater risk. As quietly as possible, she stood up and tiptoed out of the building, checking to make sure she didn't wake him up. Once she was certain that she had gotten far enough away from the building, she walked at a brisk pace to the building across the street and hid within it for a few minutes. Despite her initial reason that she wanted a bit of extra protection in case she got into a firefight, she found that the armor was becoming more and more of a problem and that perhaps it wasn't as close a fit as she had initially hoped. She stripped out of the armor, leaving it in the building, and back into her flight suit and vest, and was relieved at how marginally more comfortable it was.

She left the building and checked around to make sure that there were no patrols nearby, if there were any. She checked her holo-map, noting that she was around one-third of the way to the base she needed to get to. With a renewed resolve, she set off once again, making it to the end of the street and over a few blocks in the ancient city before she encountered someone else. He appeared to be a Remnant, leaning against a wall with his head facing it. She readied her 12-S rifle for a fight when she paused upon hearing the sound of a laugh. The Remnant leaning against the wall was laughing, for reasons she couldn't identify. She cautiously edged towards him, her grip on the rifle tightening and her trigger finger suddenly feeling very itchy. The Remnant made no visible acknowledgement of her presence, just continued laughing, until she was within a few feet of him. In a flash, he closed the distance between them and grabbed Miyu's rifle. Her eyes met with the maniacal glee in his eyes and she tried to wrestle the rifle away from him, until he knocked it out of her hands and grabbed her by the shoulder with a free hand, while his other hand reached behind his back. Crazed, he spoke her with an almost gleeful demeanor, "Lyla above let me hear what I wanted, and we aren't welcome here, on this sacred ground, which I'm going to fix!"

She tried to fight back, only to be surprised when he calmed down somewhat, the crazed smile fading and the mania in his eyes gone. He pulled out a small ration from his back and pressed it into her hands, before taking note of her injuries, "You're hurt... very hurt... There's a med-kit in my pack." Miyu was confused by his actions as he let go of her, walked over to the discarded rifle, picked it up, and handed it back to her, calm and collected. Not taking her eyes off the Remnant except for an instant, she put the ration in her pack and holstered the rifle on her back. She then walked over to the bag he gestured to and opened it up. Sure enough, there was a small red package with a red plus inside a white circle.

She looked up at the Remnant after packing the med-kit. She was ready to ask him why he'd do this when she noticed him reaching for a serrated combat dagger as he spoke, "Miyu Lynx, of Star Lynx... Never thought I'd live to see the day... When you find Fay... tell her that we've damned ourselves for what we did." With that, he dragged the serrated steel as hard as possible across his own throat, creating a small spray of blood as he choked on the blood now in his throat and fell down. The sudden action caught Miyu off-guard as he twitched a bit before stopping, leaving her in what suddenly felt like an uncomfortable silence. Not wanting to stay near the scene any longer, she took off running in the original direction she had intended to go, coming across a small group of Remnants, all dead, which she realized were from self-inflicted wounds.

She ran away from the scene and around the nearest corner, then stopped to catch her breath. She paused to check her holo-map, surprised to see that she was, about halfway there already. After that, she found herself suddenly giving in to a sudden and uncontrollable shaking. She leaned against the wall, falling into a sitting position as she wrapped her arms around herself to try and calm down, "Dammit! Why is all this happening now?" She took some time to try and calm herself down once again, eventually managing to find the strength to get back on her feet and resume her journey.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (12-S, Lyla) used with permission. Credit goes to Tobias Umbra.

→ Phew... Lots of foreshadowing in this chapter, and some fairly dark content as well. As for what I'm foreshadowing, I won't say much, but it's relevant to the mini-series. I'm not certain if I had said so before, but I intend this to be a mini-series, most likely around 4 stories long.

→ Kudos to you if you can guess the shout-out in this chapter.


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions)

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

Back on her feet, Miyu had managed to make it a considerable distance since having ditched her 'escort.' She checked the holo-map once again, just to be certain of where she was going. She had a lot on her mind: such as the (possibly insane) gleefully suicidal Remnant she had encountered; the vid-logs that spoke of a now-ancient power in slumber, some of the last fragments of a species long gone; and the fact that the Remnants in general were interested in the secrets of this world for use in their armada. By sheer force of will, she made these things stay in the back of her mind at the moment, she had a different objective in mind at the moment.

She could see the building that the Remnants had supposedly commandeered as their base. The wreck of a dropship wasn't far from the building, but still on the other side of a large, chain-link fence. The building did hold a few similarities to a prison compound, though one that had suffered just as much neglect and decay as the rest of the city. Suddenly, the fact that this building was located at the edge of the city made sense.

Getting past the chain-link fence was fairly easy. The metal was heavily rusted and fragile from centuries of neglect. And even if they were brand new, the wrecked ship had torn most of the fencing in its path clean out of the ground. She double-checked the holo-map once again, just to make sure she was in the right place, even though the Dropship was a pretty big hint. She crossed the large expanse of land between the fence and the building itself, being wary of any possible scouts and anything hiding in the tall grass. There were two large searchlights on the rooftop, in a state of complete disrepair, much like everything else, but she spied a single soldier who was, at the moment not looking in her direction. Doing her best to remain stealthy, she got down on her belly and spied them through the tall grass. Despite how abandoned this world had supposedly become, it seemed that Life was going to fight for its existence, as some flora not unlike what she had seen on planets like Fortuna and Sauria still struggled to thrive. Miyu wasn't exactly camouflaged, but she was fairly certain that she at least had time to move to a new position if the guard did a double-take.

She was able to sneak through the field and press herself against the wall of the complex. Her next task was to find a way into the building. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized how close she was to seeing Fay again. The mere thought of what the Remnants could've done, or might still be doing, to Fay made Miyu feel like she would take on the entire Armada just to protect her. Not so much that she _could_ , but more like she _would_ , if it ever came down to it. _Panther would probably have something witty and poetic to say about this_ , Miyu thought to herself as she spied what seemed like an entrance. There were two Remnants posted on either side of the door. She briefly analyzed her options.

There was a small rock that caught her attention. When she picked it up, the rock was small enough that she could wrap her fingers around it. She thought about throwing it, then debated on which target she should throw it at. At first, her target was one of the two guards, until she realized that she'd blow her cover. Her mind returned to the searchlights. She figured, in such a decrepit state, no-one would expect them to make sudden noises, and that would distract them, assuming she could find a good angle to try and hit one of the searchlights.

The Remnant guard on the rooftop was shocked when one of the searchlights emitted a sharp, loud clang mixed with breaking glass. He wasn't the only one who heard the sound, as the Remnants nearest soon left their posts to search the area. As soon as they had left, Miyu found her opening and jumped through a broken window near the entrance. She wished that she could've just shot the Remnants, but worried about attracting undue attention. What mattered at the moment was that she was inside the complex, and she just had to find Fay and get out before-

"I heard something outside. Are we..." The Remnant trailed off the instant she realized who stood before her. Without a moment's hesitation, she raised her rifle with the intent to gun Miyu down in that moment. The mercenary had a different idea instead, as she closed the distance between the two in the time it took for the Remnant to pull the trigger. The laser flew harmlessly past Miyu as she crashed into the Remnant, stumbling her for just a moment. She then ripped the helmet off the Remnant's head, then introduced her forehead to Miyu's knee. The impact knocked the soldier out cold, so Miyu checked the type of ammunition she carried, then took what she could, seeing as it was the right type for her rifle.

12-S in hand, Miyu proceeded down the walkway, all senses on high alert. She had no doubt that the Remnants outside had picked up on her distraction, as well as the laser shot. She had no doubt that her cover was thoroughly broken and that her current option was to charge in there, guns blazing. She was looking forward to that, in actuality. While she excelled at stealth, and frequently employed it, she wanted to rescue Fay as quickly as she could, and in the back of her mind, she just knew that there was no way she could go through the whole building without someone noticing something off.

As she rounded a corner, she heard a sudden knocking, prompting her to check the area. She realized that this was one of the cell blocks, and inside one of them was another Remnant, a tiger by the looks of it, hitting his head against the metal bars with a blank expression on his face. She walked closer and wondered how long he had been doing it for, and the fact that he didn't seem to register her presence disturbed her a bit. As she walked away from the cell, she heard the knocking stop briefly, before hearing a sudden, loud thud and the cracking of bone. She didn't want to turn around and see whatever happened, so she continued forward, wondering to herself why people were suddenly killing themselves around her.

Further into the building, she came across a duo of Remnants who immediately fired on her when they saw her. She returned fire, then backtracked around a corner for cover. She checked her ammo, then waited for the lasers pelting the wall behind her to stop. "Reloading. Cover me." She heard one of the Remnants say, prompting her to lean around the corner briefly and discharge a couple plasma bolts, one of which struck the reloading Remnant center-mass and shot through him. She may not be Falco when it came to sniping, but she could still aim a gun better than most.

The standing Remnant glanced at his fallen comrade, then looked back up and yelled, "You mercenary bitch!"

Miyu goaded him, "At least I still get paid."

He seemed to take the bait, "You have no honor!"

"How cliché."

"At least we have a proper armada with the strength to take on your pitiful Space Defense Force."

"I'll give you that, but you still can't handle a few mercenaries with a grudge, can ya?"

"You're no Star Fox. I'll see your skin made into a rug before the end of this day."

 _Okay, now he dies_ , Miyu thought to herself as she rounded the corner, EE-40 pistol drawn, 12-S rifle temporarily put aside. She aimed straight and muttered through clenched teeth, "Never compare me to Star Fox." With that, she pulled the trigger, sending a swirling plasma projectile careening towards her target. Like before, her aim was true and the shot struck the Remnant right in the face. As he fell over, she picked up the discarded rifle, checking it for damages, then continued onward.

A few moments after she killed the last Remnant, she noticed an insignia on the soldier's shoulder-plate. The insignia was a modified version of the standard Remnant symbol, with a trio of red lines through it, as if it were scratching it out. Miyu recognized the symbol after a second, "The Crimson Squad." She have a small chuckle when she thought about it, "I'll make sure they live up to that name then."

She resumed her walk through the complex, in search of Fay. She had already come this far, and wasn't about to give up yet. As she passed by one of the cells, a familiar scent caught her nose. She had picked up Fay's scent, then felt her stomach roll a bit when she realized that she could smell blood mixed in. She followed the scent, tightening her grip on the rifle. As she followed the trail, she started to hear the sounds of a struggle, followed by the loud 'clang' of metal hitting someone. She pressed herself against the wall and listened as someone spoke, "Nice swing. You learn that in the Academy?"

A familiar voice answered that question. Hearing it made Miyu's heart skip a beat, "No, my teammate taught me. I took Engineering classes, but she wanted me to learn some self-defense."

Miyu relaxed herself a bit and turned the corner to see the white-furred collie, gripping a decent-sized wrench and standing over an unconscious Remnant in a lab coat. There was someone vaguely familiar next to her, but the moment Fay's blue eyes met Miyu's, nothing else mattered. She walked toward Fay, letting one hand leave the rifle. Fay practically dashed towards her, wrapping her arms around Miyu's neck and crying, "Miyu!"

Miyu wrapped her arms around Fay's waist, pressing her face into Fay's neck-line, as if to be certain that she was real, "I'm here, Fay." Miyu tightened her hug a bit. Fay gasped suddenly, prompting Miyu to loosen her grip. She noticed a few tears in Fay's outfit, which showed medical wrapping underneath. She then took note of the wrappings on Fay's wrists. She came to a conclusion and brushed a hand against Fay's cheek, "Fay... I'll never let them hurt you again." She followed with a short, but passionate kiss that let Fay know that she was serious, that her declaration was a promise that she'd make good on.

"Sorry to interrupt the heartfelt reunion, but we've got a problem." Miyu turned to the individual, an ape dressed in Remnant armor, minus helmet.

She pressed the 12-S into Fay's hands, then drew her EE-40 pistol and pointed it right at the ape, "Answers. Now."

The ape didn't seem phased by the obvious threat, "Albert Germaine Finch. Cornerian Military, SDF Division, Espionage Subdivision. Saru always called me Algy"

Miyu lowered her pistol, but still held onto it, "You're Saruman's brother?"

Algy nodded, "Yeah. How is he, by the way? Haven't gotten to speak with him for a while."

"He's been fine, been worried about you, but otherwise fine. Now, what're you doing here, and what's this problem you mentioned?"

An explosion in the building interrupted their conversation, prompting the trio to run toward the source of the explosion, where they found a smoldering wreck, prompting Algy to reply, "...We didn't account for everyone. Someone managed to destroy our only escape plan."

Miyu raised an eyebrow, "Your _only_ escape plan? I've still got a working Arwing. It might be a tight fit, but once we get it repaired, I think we might be able to squeeze two people in the cockpit and someone in the supply compartment."

Fay turned to Miyu and asked, "What needs repairs?"

"Just the left wing and the fuel tank. Though that brings me to my next problem. Even at full, I don't think I have enough fuel to get us back to the Lylat System."

Fay glanced toward the burning wreckage, then turned to Miyu, "We won't need to. The Remnants discovered an Orbital Gate in Earth's orbit. Apparently, humanity had built the thing during their Golden Age of Space Exploration, which is how they made contact with Cerinia."

Miyu remembered how they got stranded on this world in the first place, then wondered aloud, "Any chance there's any of those black-boxes here?"

Algy held out his hand. In the palm of his hand was a flash-drive, "I've copied the ones they recovered that weren't corrupted. There's quite a treasure trove of information in them."

Miyu took the flash-drive, while Fay leaned closer to her and in a low voice, spoke in her ear, "I have one more. Just let me know when you want it." Miyu briefly raised an eyebrow, then chuckled a little when Fay whispered to her, "It's how I'm working with him."

Miyu smirked and whispered back, "Clever." She looked back at Algy and lifted up her EE-40, "Let's take care of the rest. I've got a map to get back to our Arwings-" She turned to meet Fay's gaze, "-unless you still want to try and fit the three of us into my Arwing."

Fay glanced at Algy, who just nodded, prompting her to reply, "I think we can manage one Arwing. Depending on how far apart, I could use the parts from my Arwing, along with the salvaged fuel, to perform the repairs."

Miyu smiled, "Okay, but we stick together from here on out." She walked back over to Fay and placed her free hand on Fay's shoulder. "I won't leave you again, Fay." She gave her a reassuring smile, "I promise."

* * *

After the group recovered whatever they could from the destroyed base in terms of supplies and weapons, they hauled their loot out of the makeshift base about an hour later and began the trek to Miyu's Arwing, as Fay wanted to assess the damages before making a decision. The prison complex went up in flames as they left, and Miyu was glad she managed to get Fay out before then. Thankfully, neither of them acquired any new injuries after the firefight, though Miyu found herself looking at a steadily dwindling food supply, in spite of the rations they'd recovered. With extra mouths to feed, Miyu's only hope was that they could get the Arwing repaired sooner rather than later. If Algy was right about the Orbital Gate, they could make it back to the Lylat System quickly, and back to the _Livid Vixen_ before long.

All of that became second nature when she suddenly doubled over in pain. Her thigh flared up suddenly and her gait became uneasy. Fay noticed and rushed to her side in a moment. Something warm began trickling down her face, and as her head began to throb, Miyu realized that the bandage around her head had fallen off, and the injury had reopened. Fay helped her lay down gently and Algy began checking her injuries. "Medicine was part of my espionage training. I'd never know if I was gonna be stuck somewhere without assistance." He informed them as he helped Fay undo the bandage around Miyu's thigh. He checked the two injuries, then gave his diagnosis, "Her wounds aren't infected and she hasn't lost much blood, thank Lyla, but the adrenaline's wearing off and she's reopened her wounds. From what I can tell, she's overworked and hasn't given herself time to rest lately."

It was Fay's turn to become dead serious, "You know medicine? Help her." She glared daggers at him to tell him that it wasn't a suggestion, prompting him to reach into his pack and pull out a med-kit.

He pulled out a small container and sprayed the wound with a gel-like substance, "This ought to close the wounds quicker and stave off infection." At Fay's inquiry, he simply gave her the med-kit, "It'll wash off, or come out when she sheds. It's something that we developed to help get soldiers back on their feet faster. In a few minutes, these wounds should stop bleeding." He pulled out medical wrappings and began wrapping her head, then moved on to her thigh. When he finished, he placed the roll back in the med-kit, then told Fay, "Keep it, you'll probably need it." He turned to Miyu, who winced, then looked at him as he spoke to the duo, "Get some rest, Lyla knows you both need it. I'll take watch."

Miyu sighed in exhaustion, then felt her eyelids drooping. She leaned back against the ground, deciding that a rest wouldn't hurt. She trusted Fay to handle herself, but felt bad about leaving her alone again, even if so she could rest.

A dreamless, but peaceful nap later, Miyu soon became aware of the fact that there was a weight on her body. She opened her eyes to a clear, night sky, and Fay, who had wrapped an arm around her and rested her head on Miyu's chest. The cloak that she had was wrapped around the two of them like a blanket. She became aware of a warm, orange-yellow glow nearby and spied a small campfire, with Algy standing on the opposite side, rifle in hand, surveying the environment. She felt that there was something soft under her head and realized that it was her vest. Her head throbbed and she felt a headache coming on and wondered if it was related to her head injury, but seeing Fay so peaceful made her not want to wake her up. When Algy turned around, he saw her wave to him with the one arm that wasn't tangled around Fay. He walked over to her and when she told him about the headache, he handed her a small bottle of water, "You're dehydrated. Hard work and blood-loss do that to ya. Drink up and rest, we'll discuss our next course of action tomorrow."

Normally, Miyu was the one to give orders (the few times she did give orders, considering the rather loose command structure Star Lynx had), and while she didn't trust Algy that much yet, she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. She sipped down the water, realizing how parched she felt from the past couple days. Before realizing it, she'd emptied the bottle, and when she noticed it, she set it down, then closed her eyes again, her hands wandering around and wrapping around Fay before she went back to sleep.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (12-S, EE-40, 'Saruman', 'Finch') used with permission. Credit goes to Tobias Umbra.


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions)

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

* * *

When Miyu came to after a rather peaceful sleep, she found that Fay had somehow managed to get herself on top of Miyu's body, still wrapped up in the cloak, and still blissfully asleep. When she looked around, she saw Algy, sitting down in front of the embers of the campfire, slumped against a large rock. She heard a small groan and looked down to see Fay open her eyes, then turn to look up at Miyu. She grinned at Fay, "Morning, beautiful."

Fay couldn't resist a small chuckle, "And hello to you too." She let her head rest on Miyu's chest, listening to her heartbeat and slow, relaxed breathing. A few moments passed in near complete silence, save for the ambiance from the environment, before Fay spoke, "I was scared that I wouldn't see you again."

Miyu planted a kiss on Fay's forehead, then told her, "You don't have to be scared anymore." She chuckled a bit, "I know that sounds cheesy, but I mean it."

Fay smiled and laughed, before letting out a relaxed sigh. Some more time passed by before Fay commented, "You're comfy."

Miyu grinned, "Glad you think so." She grunted as she tried to move, "However, romantic as this may be, we can't stay like this forever." Fay put on her best pouting face and moved so Miyu could sit up. She met Fay's gaze. Fay tried to hold a straight face, though she could see Miyu's mouth start to curl into a grin. Her own lips quivered, before the two of them broke into a fit of laughter.

After the two of them had calmed down, Miyu put a hand on Fay's shoulder, "I promise, when we get home, and back to the _Livid Vixen_ , I'll see about getting us some personal time together."

Fay smiled at the thought, "A private spa visit?" Miyu stood up, a seductive grin answering her question. "You naughty lynx," Fay teased as Miyu helped her up.

She pulled Fay into another kiss. One hand cupped Fay's cheek, while the other began brushing against her curves, down to her midriff, where her laser injury was. Fay tensed up and whimpered at Miyu's touch, prompting her to stop. She glanced at Fay's injuries, then asked, "Have you checked yours?"

Fay nodded, trying to blink away tears, "Just after you went to sleep, Algy checked them. He said that they weren't infected, but the laser cut on my side was a bit deeper than he had originally thought. It's still sensitive." Just hearing about it made Miyu's blood boil. She wished she could've been there sooner, and maybe Fay wouldn't have have gotten hurt. Maybe if she hadn't gotten sidetracked with that one fox Remnant... "Miyu? You're doing it again."

Miyu looked up, realizing that she had been glaring, "Sorry, it's just... I..."

Fay held a finger up against Miyu's mouth, "The past is the past. Besides, you already got revenge on them."

A sudden snort pulled their attention away from each other and toward Algy, who had just woken up with a sudden, "I got you covered!" He paused when he became aware of the lack of danger, and the two Lylatians embraced in front of him. He looked the two over, then asked, "Do you two need a moment?"

Fay, much to Miyu's quiet dismay, let go of her and replied, "No, we're good." Algy moved into a cross-legged position against the rock. The group then began discussing their plan for their next course of action. During which, Algy was asked if he had sent the geographical data, which he showed confusion over. After some confusion over who had sent the data, they resumed their discussion of their plan.

* * *

Miyu was feeling markedly better over how she felt the night before, so the group set out immediately. Algy stomped out the remainder of their campfire and brushed the ashes away as best as he could, to reduce the likelihood of someone tracking them. Miyu and Fay had packed up what they could, with Miyu wrapping herself up in the cloak she'd found once again and giving Fay the rest of her 12-S ammo, telling her that Fay was better off with the rifle in the first place.

After a few hours of walking in silence, with Fay's Arwing as their destination, Fay finally decided to ask a small question, "So, the cloak. Where'd you find it?"

Miyu, who had since pulled the hood over her head, glanced at it, "I found it. It was in one of the buildings I had briefly camped in. I used it to disguise myself long enough to walk right into a Remnant base and get the location of the base they'd taken you to."

Fay was surprised to hear about that, "You walked into a Remnant base in that thing?"

"Well, I had, er, 'borrowed' one of their outfits to help the disguise. Damn thing hurt to wear though." She tried not to think about the young fox she'd left behind beforehand, but nonetheless, the image of that angered, bruised snarl managed to worm its way into her mind, making her feel guilty for leaving her behind. She growled and held her hand up to her face, "Dammit."

Fay turned to look, "Headache?"

Miyu shook her head, "No, guilt." At Fay's confusion, she clarified, "That building I was in, a Remnant patrol had somehow detected my signal and had arrived to investigate. I killed three of them, stole the fourth one's armor and forced her to lead me to her base."

Fay looked horrified, and Miyu briefly wondered if this was the end of their relationship. Instead, Fay calmed herself down, "You feel guilty? She was hunting you. Far as I can tell, you were defending yourself."

Miyu let her arm fall back to her side and her head hang, "There's more... I promised her that I'd take her off-world if she helped me. When we came close to the base, she tried to attack me and I fought back. I left her lying on the ground, and I told her that I wasn't going to help her out."

Fay seemed to pause, before speaking, "Don't let it get to you. You made a promise to her, she betrayed you, you left her behind. She probably wasn't very trustworthy to begin with."

Miyu sighed, "I know, but it still felt wrong to just leave her there, so I left her a ration. But why do I still feel guilty?"

Fay stared up at the sky in thought, "...Perhaps because deep down, you're a good person even if you sometimes have trouble showing it? Maybe you still wanted to show some compassion in light of her betrayal? Maybe you still feel obligated to fulfill your promise? I dunno, I'm not the team philosopher."

Miyu let herself relax a bit, "Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe I should speak with Fara after all this and see if she can tell me." Her frown returned, "It's just that, I'd still like to bring her with us. I know I was a bit rough on her and she betrayed me, but I'd like to give her a second chance."

Fay sighed, "I know, I probably would too in your situation, but how are we supposed to fit four people in one Arwing. As it is, two is pushing it, and we're gonna have to dump some supplies if we're gonna fit Algy in there... I just don't see how we can."

Miyu thought about it, "We could make trips? There is an Orbital Gate here after all." She thought about it a bit more, "We drop you and Algy off, then pick her up."

"And take her where? Miyu, she's a Remnant, just like you said. Anyone with a computer or even half a brain can figure that out, no-one would..." Fay's eyes widened a bit as she recalled something, "Except for Star Wolf..." She hated the thought of dealing with them, not because they worked with Andross during the War, but simply because she didn't like the trio, way more than she disliked Star Fox. Nevertheless, she knew that the Sargasso Region, where they made their home, was a shelter to all sorts of criminal types, an ideal place for a Venomian Remnant to hide from prying eyes.

Miyu was willing to take her chances however, "Well then, we'd better have a really good argument ready for when they inevitably start shooting at us."

* * *

When midday rolled around, the trio were deep within the ancient city once again when they stopped to sit down for a brief rest. During that time, Miyu decided to ask about the Remnant that she'd passed by in the cell, the one who she was fairly certain killed himself on the bars of his cell. Algy seemed quite surprised, "He went that far that quickly?"

Miyu was curious, "What do you mean by that?"

Fay gestured to her bandaged wrists, "He did this to me, after I smack-talked him, then nearly gave the doctor a concussion while the doc was giving him a psychological evaluation. This was about two days before you arrived." She paused when Miyu winced at the bandages, then added, "Apparently, before we got here, he was perfectly stable and according to Algy, a decent person. Since our rough arrival, he's just the most recent person to go inexplicably insane and murderous or suicidal."

Miyu remembered one of the vid-logs she'd seen, and remembered that she had one more to watch at some point, though her suspicions were telling her what the contents were probably. She asked Algy, "Did any of the others show anything else strange about them?"

Algy shook his head, "If you mean anything along the lines of Aparoid infection, that's a no. The doc ran tests on one of the others and came back with nothing." He paused for a moment, before admitting, "I still think something doesn't want us here, and it's trying to scare us off by driving each of us insane."

Miyu shrugged, "Even _if_ that were the case, I'm not sticking around anyway. Lyla knows how much mischief Fara can get into when she's bored..." She paused for a moment, then muttered, "...She and Saru must be worried sick about us."

Fay, feeling somewhat rested after their little break, stood back up, "Then let's not waste any time." As Miyu and Algy stood up, Fay gestured in the direction that Miyu's holo-map had directed them, "With luck, we can make it before the other Remnant bases get wind of the Crimson Squad's failure."

Miyu heard a sigh and turned to Algy, "Something you wanted to say?"

Algy was staring at the ground as they walked, entrenched in thought, "...No. Let's keep moving. I'd like to get a bit farther before we stop."

* * *

The group continued in silence for the next couple hours. When the trio finally agreed that they were all tired, they went into the nearest building and while Algy checked it to make sure it was clear, Miyu lent Fay her cloak, saying that she'd keep watch until Algy got back. As they sat by the small fire that Miyu had made, she noticed that Fay was being quieter than she normally was. She was tempted to ask, but felt that she knew the answer. She had worried about it since their first day on Earth. Sometimes, it surprised her that a simple thought was all it took to scare her. This time, that thought was a question of whether they'd ever see the Lylat System again or not.

Fay had every confidence in her abilities as a mechanic that she could get an Arwing back in the air, no matter how damaged. Miyu may have outclassed her when it came to flying them, but she was what kept it flight-capable. She looked down at her bandaged wrists. Her encounter with that one Remnant, who's name slipped her mind at the moment, was a bit of a rude awakening. She was lucky to escape with nothing worse than this, but she found herself worrying about what could happen if he had done worse than just cut Fay's wrists. She finally nerved up and spoke her mind, "Miyu... I'm glad you got there when you did. I really am."

Miyu met her gaze and grinned, "No problem." Her grin faded and she looked away, "I just wish I could've gotten there sooner."

Fay groaned, "Miyu, don't keep beating yourself up over it. They could've done a lot worse, which is why I wanted to ask you about something."

Her ears perked up as Miyu looked at her again, "What's up?"

"...I want to learn hand-to-hand combat. Can you teach me?"

Miyu thought about it for a moment, "...I don't know if I could." At Fay's startled inquiry, Miyu replied, "Fay, I fret enough about other people hurting you. I don't want to be one of them."

She opened her mouth to say something when Fay interrupted her, "I'm not a pushover, Miyu. I can hold my own in a fight. You've seen me when we trained together!"

Miyu sighed, "Those were sparring sessions that I set up so that we wouldn't get rusty. It was to help sharpen your self-defense, remember? _However_ , Saru would definitely train you if you asked, and if not, he'd be able to find you a tutor. I doubt that he's actually got anything going on that would keep him from doing so personally."

Fay gave Miyu a confused look, "You'd refuse to train me, but you'd let our teammate do so? Why?"

She noticed Miyu bite her lip, then reply, "...Remember when we were just puppy and kitten? When we played together? Remember that we sometimes played rough? I enjoyed those times. Remember that one time those bullies tried to..." She trailed off, trying to remember it, "...Were they trying to take your schoolbooks? I don't remember."

"Miyu, it doesn't matter what they were trying to do, the fact is that they were trying to do it. I remember you fought them off to protect me."

"...Their leader was a little husky pup, and I nearly cut his ear off and almost broke his arm. I was lucky that his parents didn't press charges. But that haunted me for a long time. I was so used to roughhousing around that I never stopped for even a moment to consider that I could actually hurt someone. I was scared that I could hurt someone I cared for, and I've held back since then."

Fay's eyes widened a bit at the realization, "...So that's why you felt bad about that Remnant?"

Miyu raised an eyebrow, "Wait, yes? No! What? Fay, I..." She paused and rubbed her temples in frustration, "The point I'm trying to make is, every time we've sparred or tussled or even just screwed around since then, I've been trying my damnedest to make sure I didn't seriously hurt you. That's why it took me so long to teach you some basics of self-defense. Besides losing you and the rest of Star Lynx, my biggest fear has always been hurting you."

Fay looked down at the campfire, before turning to her and saying, "You said earlier that I didn't need to be scared."

Miyu nodded, saying nothing.

Fay stood up and walked over to where Miyu was sitting, taking a seat next to her, "Maybe it's time someone told you that _you_ don't need to be scared." She heard a half-hearted chuckled and grinned, "Ridiculous as that may sound." She placed a hand on Miyu's shoulder, "I've never been scared of you hurting me, Miyu. I've told you before that I can take it." At the sound of Miyu sighing, she brushed a hand against Miyu's cheek and turned her head to face her, "Miyu, I love you and I know you love me. There is practically nothing you are morally capable of doing to change how I feel."

She gave Miyu a peck on the cheek for emphasis, then told her, "I want _you_ to train me, because I trust you not to treat me like a delicate flower." She paused as Miyu's eyes widened, "I'm the engineer for Star Lynx, for Lyla's sake! We're mercenaries and we face danger practically every job we take! It's counterproductive for me to not receive melee training, but Saru doesn't know me like you do, and he doesn't trust anyone. We've been friends since childhood, and lovers since the Academy, there is literally no-one else in the entire Lylat System who knows _me_ like you do."

Fay hadn't realized that tears were falling until Miyu's hand brushed them away. She seemed somewhat comforted and smiled at her, "...Alright, I will." She touched noses with Fay, then mentioned, "You know... You had me at 'morally capable.'" She gave Miyu an incredulous gaze that prompted a laugh, "I was gonna stop you, but you were rather passionate about it."

Fay grinned, then leaned against her shoulder, "Not as passionate as I am with engineering and loving you."

Miyu chuckled, "I would hope you're passionate about loving me. I feel the same about you."

Fay laughed, then rested her head on Miyu's shoulder, draping the cloak around Miyu's shoulder. She said nothing as Miyu wrapped an arm around her waist, being mindful of her injury this time. There was a soft sound that caught Fay's attention. She heard it from within Miyu and realized that she was purring, if the small grin tugging at her lips was any indication. There was a brief period of silence that prevailed throughout the building, save for the crackling of the fire, and the occasional sounds of whatever went on outside.

The two of them were eventually joined by Algy, who had cleared the building. The three of them remained quiet, blissfully unaware of the fact that they were being watched. The watcher seemed especially focused on Miyu and Fay, committing various details about them to memory. It also checked the environment around them, determining the number of immediate hostiles in the area. The count that it made was startling, but there was nothing it could do at the moment, it hadn't even regained partial functionality of some of its more combat-oriented abilities. All it could hope for was for the inevitable conflict to have a favorable outcome. It couldn't communicate with them directly yet either, not even that function had been repaired, and what little energy it had at the moment was devoted towards restoring a more advanced, ancient power source, so that it could properly get to work on repairs. Nevertheless, it could see the world, and it saw what it thought was the final step in its plan. Ever since it had woken up a few days ago and began to understand the situation, it had worked to try and ensure the survival of those two, however possible. As it watched over the trio from its at-present only eye in the sky, it thought, _You two are exactly who I need_.

* * *

As nightfall began to descend on them, Algy, who had until then been asleep by the fire, had woken up and offered to take watch in Miyu's place. She was about to when a laser shot through the window and missed her head by a small margin. The trio scrambled for their weapons as more laser fire pelted the walls of the building. Fay, who had just woken up, grabbed her 12-S rifle and wrapped herself up in the cloak at Miyu's prompting.

Algy took a moment to kick the embers of their campfire, trying to reduce the amount of light in the building, before he followed Miyu and Fay deeper into the building. They arrived in what looked a lot like a classroom a little ways down one of the halls in the building. Miyu overturned one of the desks and ducked behind it, prompting Fay and Algy to join her in hiding. Algy took the time to peak over their barricade and saw cones of light in the hallway. He soon caught sight of a duo of Remnants, one of whom began speaking into his com-link, "Bravo Seven, this is Delta Nine, we've got a bead on the bastards that killed the Crimson Squad." There was a pause as the Remnant on the other side gave him his orders, "Copy." He turned to his ally, "Check those rooms, and if you think you see one of them, don't leave any of them alive."

"Permission to employ grenades and the missile launcher?"

The Remnant hesitated for a moment, but nodded, "Granted. Just don't bring down the building _before_ we get the chance to clear out. And be warned, one of our scouts said they might have hostages."

Algy briefly glanced at the other two, then slipped his Remnant helmet on. He whispered his plan to Fay, who relayed it to Miyu, then quietly stepped out from behind cover. He stepped out into the hallway, with his hands up. The two Remnants immediately noticed him when he said, "They didn't kill the entire Crimson Squad. I escaped."

The Remnants before him lowered their weapons, "Sergeant Johnny-Lee? You're alright?"

"Easy, soldier. I've lived through worse. Now, where's the rest of your squad?" 'Sergeant Johnny-Lee' lowered his hands as one of the Remnants, holding a missile launcher, set it down.

"It's just us at the moment, sir." The two of them briefly looked a bit confused as to why he asked, and were too slow to respond as he drew a 23-E pistol and put a hole between the bombardier's eyes, then in a single, swift motion, turned the pistol on the other soldier and put him down.

There was a pause, Algy was listening for any signs of back-up. After a few moments, he gestured for the two to come out of hiding. Fay noticed the two dead soldiers, then turned to Algy, "That was quick."

"Efficiency. It comes in handy." Algy didn't even bat an eye at the corpses. When he took off his helmet, Miyu observed that his eyes were completely devoid of any sort of emotion. Miyu recognized that look, the appearance of someone who's mind had hardened and desensitized to the constant killing and death that someone in his position dealt with. While Fay was better at reading someone just from looking at them, Miyu knew enough about this one particular mentality to recognize it on sight. She had seen a similar look during a brief partnership with the Cornerian Military back when she and Fay were still part of Star Fox, as well as when both working with and fighting numerous assassins, the look of a person who, if a commanding officer so much as suggested off-hand that he kill his best friend, he'd do it and not feel anything, or need a reason to do so.

Miyu made a personal note to keep an eye on him. "Well, if it gets the job done... Come on," she gestured toward one of the hallways, "No doubt that this place will be swarming with Remnants soon."

The instant the trio set foot outside, a group of Remnants noticed them and opened fire on the group. Taking refuge behind one of the ancient transports, Miyu, Fay, and Algy returned fire, one of them taking down a Remnant while he was reloading. Miyu paused for a moment to reload her EE-40, and took notice of a shadow creeping up on them. The Remnant leaped out of hiding with a combat knife brandished. Miyu swept a leg, tripping him over, then jabbed her elbow down on his neck with a resounding crack. She grabbed his knife, briefly admiring the serrated vibroknife, before attaching its sheath to her belt and sheathing it. Fay, in the meantime, had managed to bring down a trio of Remnants with her rifle, and paused to grab a grenade from the Remnant body next to Miyu. She activated it and lobbed the grenade over their cover. A couple seconds passed and Fay pulled Miyu under cover as the explosion took out the remainder of the Remnants hunting them, with only a couple stragglers who opted for a retreat instead of further combat.

Algy, Miyu, and Fay poked their heads out from under their cover. There was a brief pause as the trio held their breath, trigger fingers itchy. When nothing followed, Miyu and Fay relaxed, though Algy remained vigilant. The lynx turned to her companion, "That was a nice lob."

"You think so? I was just copying what I saw Fara do a few times."

Miyu grinned, before a loud rumbling caught the trio's attention. They looked up to see one of the ancient buildings begin to collapse, falling sideways onto the street the Remnants had retreated through, sending a cloud of dust up as the large chunks of ancient concrete and steel hit the ground. There was a long pause as they waited for anything else to happen. When nothing else followed, Fay and Miyu turned to each other and the former gave the latter a nervous chuckle, "I guess my aim was a bit crazy."

Algy projected a holo-map, "We sent them packing, but no doubt if they find us again, they'll have reinforcements and bigger firepower." He deactivated the holo-projector and turned to meet Miyu's gaze, "We need to find that Arwing and get airborne before they put us six feet under."

"Remnants still bury their dead?"

Algy sighed, "Yes, they do. They're not completely heartless, just mostly heartless considering they'll also perform unethical science experiments that create so much dead."

Fay wanted to interject about how not all science was bad, and Miyu would have been perfectly content to let her, but she let it slide, seeing as they had bigger things to worry about than having an argument about personal opinions.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (12-S, Lyla, 23-E, EE-40) used with permission. Credit goes to Tobias Umbra.

→ Ooh, foreshadowing, tension, drama, a shootout, and cheesy romantic dialogue. And only a quarter of it was actually planned out beforehand. I was listening to Enigma's "Gravity of Love," while up late, doing some freewriting for some original fiction when I thought of the idea that would become this story. So, with some sleep, my caffeinated drink of choice, and a clearer mind (as opposed to writing while barely awake), I began actually planning it out, and now you're seeing -or reading- the results of such. A whole lot changed from the initial idea to the current version (See Below).

→ The first version featured Kursed alone as the main character, and Earth wasn't even remotely involved as it took place on Fortuna, and one version had Saru being Andrew Oikenny in disguise shooting Kursed down. Later versions, it became Miyu and Fay being shot down by Saru, or the entire Star Lynx Team going down, but it was still on a forested planet. A couple versions even had humanity playing a bigger role than they are now, the latter version of which did finally bring me to having the setting on Earth. When I decided on Earth, I immediately thought about going for an "After the End" Earth instead of a modern-day Earth, based on a theory I once had about the Lylatian species as a whole, and with a bit of inspiration from the planet "Temple" from Tobias Umbra's "A Great Day to Die." Admittedly, this has a bit more mystical elements in it than I had first intended with the first version, but it's more just another change in the list of changes I made for the current version.

→ The gesture with them touching noses, I've likened it to being a sort of intimate kiss-like gesture, though I'm still working on the context for it.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Star Fox © Nintendo. Original Content © Me (See A/N for exceptions)

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

* * *

The trio traveled for a few more hours before they found themselves in a part of the city that Miyu recognized. This was a part of the city that she had camped out in during her first night on this planet. She told the others, and Fay was ecstatic about it, "We're one step closer to getting off this planet!"

After stopping for a brief rest, the trio finally found their way to Miyu's Arwing, still parked in the street where she had left it, and surrounded by a small patrol of Remnants. The Remnants hadn't seen them yet, so Miyu pulled Fay and Algy behind a corner and discussed a plan with them, "Algy, you've still got that armor of yours, I want you to lure them away from my Arwing so that Fay and I can get started on assessing the damages."

* * *

The instant Algy stepped out from the shadows, the Remnants saw him and recognized the logo on his shoulder. The soldiers lined up and saluted him, "Sergeant Johnny-Lee Karlos! It's an honor!"

Algy gestured for them to stand down, "You've done a great service here, gentlemen." A clearly faked cough in the lineup caused him to add, "...and lady." He resumed his speech, "Thankfully, your mission has been fulfilled. Star Lynx's presence on this world has been eradicated." The soldiers all shared grins and smiles and cheer all around. The cheer faded when he added, "But, the loss has been great. Beyond myself, there is no Crimson Squad anymore. They have fallen, and I have been commissioned to help marshal all our remaining strength in a few central locations to increase efficiency and productivity." The soldiers looked a bit confused, but the confusion cleared up when he specified, "I need you to return to your base and await further orders."

The soldiers began packing up anything that they had unpacked and proceeded to leave the area. One of the soldiers turned to Saru and asked him, "Are you coming with us, Sergeant?"

Algy shook his head, "I've still got other groups to find, soldier. Now get going."

The soldier ran off to rejoin the rest of his squad, leaving Algy in near complete silence for a minute, before he called out to Miyu and Fay, "It's safe now!"

* * *

"Alright, let's see what the damage is this time." Fay checked the system scan, "...Missing left wing, cracked fuel tank, seems fairly easy to fix." She looked around at the nearby ancient vehicles, "I might be able to salvage a temporary fix for the wing and the fuel tank. If we're lucky, we can salvage some fuel from these vehicles. After that, who knows?" She looked up into the sky, at the asteroid ring and the Orbital Gate in it. "Is your distress beacon still intact?"

Miyu wasn't keen on the thought of needing it, but confirmed that she still had an intact beacon. Such beacons were essentially designed to broadcast on all frequencies, and had enough battery-life for three Cornerian days. "Why do I get the feeling that we're gonna need it?"

Fay grinned, "I know you hate the thought of needing it, but if the _Livid Vixen_ isn't close enough for us to fly to, we'll have to use it." She looked up from her work, "Can I ask you and Algy to keep watch while I work?"

Miyu nodded, "We'll go set up a perimeter. Let me know if you need anything."

* * *

Miyu and Algy left Fay to the Arwing, and began checking around the nearby buildings. Algy had pointed out something that he thought looked suspicious and that he wanted her to come with him.

Once they got a ways away from Fay and the Arwing, Miyu looked around the area and took note of the lack of apparent suspicious activity. She heard Algy shifting his feet behind her and muttered aloud, "I _am_ already seeing somebody, you know."

At the sound of a 23-E being cocked behind her, she immediately put the pieces together, "Sorry, Miyu. I can't have you interfering with SDF operations." She raised her hands in the air as he reached into her holster and pulled out her EE-40. "For what it's worth, thanks for securing my ride home, and giving me the means to tie up loose ends." She realized that he was referring to the rest of Star Lynx and her eyes widened as he gestured for her to get down on her knees. He still carried that same emotionless, dead stare that he always seemed to have, "I'll make sure that you get the highest honors at your funeral."

Miyu was tempted to punch him in the face, but the fact that he had a gun to her face meant she probably wouldn't get far before he shot her. She settled for spitting in his face and retorting, "If by 'highest honors', you mean vilifying and murdering me and everyone I love. Even your own brother, you fucking traitor."

Algy shrugged, "He's adopted. And it's not like my parents will care either since they're six feet under." He took aim, saying, "I'm only following my orders."

At the sound of an SK-7 rifle being cocked behind him, Algy paused, and a voice that Miyu recognized told him, "Hurt her and I paint the street with your innards."

Algy paused as the white fox grabbed his 23-E pistol and holstered it on her belt. She kept her rifle trained on his head while she grabbed the EE-40 in his other hand, then walked around to give it back to Miyu. Miyu gratefully took her pistol back and aimed it at Algy's head. She got back on her feet and growled at him, "'Just following orders' isn't going to get you out of this alive, Algy."

The white fox glanced at Miyu, "'Algy?' I thought this was Johnny-Lee."

Miyu spared a glare at the white fox, "You still have some explaining to do, but first things first-" She swung a powerful left hook at Algy, hitting him square in the jaw and sending him reeling onto the ground.

He spat up some blood, then turned to Miyu and declared, "You'll be enemies of the state when I return home."

The vixen slammed the butt of her rifle into his head, knocking him out cold. "If you return home..." She immediately checked her rifle for damages, then turned to Miyu, "You're gonna want explanations, I'm sure."

Miyu kept her pistol by her side, "Start talking."

The vixen began talking, "Well, I was lying about the brother, that I'm sure you've already figured out. And I betrayed you, that much is also true." She paused, "Well, they _did_ exile me for my failure, as I told you. I was left wandering the streets of this alien city for a few days. I'll tell you, being alone with nothing but your thoughts will drive anyone to do something crazy. I was left to think about that promise you made to me, and how you broke it when I tried to kill you." The vixen met Miyu's analytical stare, "I ended up following you around for a while after you killed the Crimson Squad, and hearing about your choices about where you could send me if I did come along." She held out her hand, in a gesture of peace, "I'd like to make amends. Let me come with you and I'll give you a different suggestion for where I can go."

Miyu weighed her options. She recalled the last time she trusted this person ended with the Remnant trying to put a hole in her skull. However, if the vixen's story was credible, she really was an ex-Remnant now. But, if she still held a grudge, then this was just an opportunity to get close and get back at her. If that were true, then she wouldn't have saved Miyu from Algy.

She really hoped that she was making the right decision as she reached out and shook the ex-Remnant's hand, "I don't trust you, but I'll give you one chance."

That seemed to please the vixen, "Thanks, and the name's Melya. You can call me 'Mel' for short."

Miyu picked up Algy's discarded 23-E pistol, before fishing through his pockets for supplies, getting some ammunition and medical supplies for her troubles. She gestured for Mel to come with her.

* * *

Fay was humming a little tune to herself and working on patching up the currently exposed fuel-tank when she heard footsteps approaching. She paused what she was doing and listened for a moment, which was answered by Miyu greeting her. She waved to Miyu, who then asked, "How goes the repairs?"

She wiped her forehead, "Fine, so far. I've managed to find and salvage some fuel from the derelict vehicles here. This 'Humanity' sure did have a knack for building things meant to last, which apparently included preserving what fuels they could find." She glanced behind her and took note of the white vixen standing next to Miyu, "Who's this? Come to think of it, where's Algy?"

Miyu bit her lip, hesitating, "Fay... This is gonna be a bit difficult to swallow..."

Fay folded her arms, "Try me."

She took a deep breath to make sure her mind was clear enough to tell her, "Algy... he tried to kill me earlier, said we were interfering with SDF business. He promised to kill you, then the rest of Star Lynx to keep it a secret. Mel here saved my ass in exchange for us bringing her along instead."

Mel introduced herself, "You must be Fay. I've heard you're one of the best mercenary engineers out there. Well, I'm Mel, and like Miyu said, I rescued her from Algy." She paused, "I have a suggestion for where you can send me instead of Star Wolf."

Fay raised an eyebrow, "Okay, I'm curious. Where did you have in mind?"

Mel thought about it, "There is a small underground refugee camp forming on Fichina that I had gotten into contact with for a while. I'll admit that I'd been kinda torn between my loyalty to the cause and the value I placed on my life, which is why I didn't really do much at the time. I had plans to try and flee the Remnants, but that got derailed when I got assigned to the mission that sent us here."

Miyu gave her a critical stare, "You were conflicted? So why the whole act? Why try and kill me to prove your worth to the Remnants if you were gonna betray them anyway?"

Mel was caught off-guard, "Well... uh... I... I don't really know why I... Dammit, I don't know..." She held her head in frustration, "It was like I couldn't control myself at the time..."

Miyu wasn't sure she believed that, but at the same time, she thought about the other Remnants she had encountered, and it made her wonder if, perhaps, there was something else going on. She averted her gaze for a moment, then met Mel's, "Alright, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt. We've seen some strange things happening since we got here. Frankly, I don't want to stay here any longer and risk falling victim to whatever already affected some of the Remnants here."

Mel shook her head, "Ditto... On the 'leaving here' part."

Fay returned to her attempts to patch up Miyu's Arwing, "You sure you don't wanna find out what's going on here? I'm kinda curious actually."

Miyu glanced in Fay's direction before looking around the area, "That's the problem. I _am_ curious as to what's going on. But, Fay, we're horribly unprepared to deal with it, whatever it is. That's part of why I want to get off-world and back home as soon as possible." Miyu didn't feel the need to tell Fay that the other reason was her being terrified of losing Fay to another close call, and when Mel asked about it, she said nothing. She chose instead to ask Fay, "So, how are we going to fit all three of us into it?"

Without looking up from her work, Fay asked Mel, "How flexible are you?"

Mel was confused by the question, "Uh, what?" The implications began to sink in, "Are you asking me to sit in the supply compartment? Is there enough space in there?"

Fay nodded, "If we dump some stuff, you could fit in there if you curl up. You're not claustrophobic, are you?"

Mel shook her head, "I find small spaces quite comfy as long as there's enough space to breathe and a source of fresh air."

Fay tapped a couple tubes to ensure that they were connected properly, then began sealing up the Arwing, "The supplies are why I was asking about the beacon. You're smaller than Algy," she gestured to Mel, "so we may not need to ditch as much. Miyu and I could fit in the cockpit easily, and after I patch this wing up, it'll be smooth sailing from here. From what I've gathered from the archives, the Lunar Gate, as the Humans called it, works about the same as the Orbital Gates in the Lylat System, so we should be able to broadcast the coordinates for the nearest Gate there. After that, if we can't establish contact with the _Livid Vixen_ immediately, we activate the beacon and wait for them."

Miyu realized something and asked about the progress on the Arwing, "Wait, you said 'as soon as you patch the wing up.' Does that mean you're almost done now?"

Fay nodded, "The damages to your Arwing were paper-cuts compared to what my Arwing sustained."

The lynx raised an eyebrow, "What kind of damages did your Arwing get?"

Without missing a beat, Fay replied, "It's a paperweight now."

* * *

The rest of the repairs went fairly smooth, and with no interference from the Remnants, the group finally got the chance to relax somewhat. When Fay announced that the repairs were finished, they packed up for the trip. As Mel crawled into the supply compartment, Fay couldn't help expressing concerns over it, "Are you sure you want to sit in there? It doesn't look comfortable. We could always come back and get you, you know." She nudged Miyu with her elbow, "Right, Miyu?"

Miyu nodded, not wanting to cross Fay, "Yeah."

Mel insisted, "I'll be _fine_ , you two. It's actually kinda roomy in here." She curled up into a fetal position, "Let's just get this thing flying and we'll worry about me later."

Fay bit her lip, "Alright, if you're _absolutely_ certain. I've left an oxygen mask and a couple spare air cans in there if you think you need them." Mel gave her the thumbs up, prompting Fay to shut the compartment. She turned to Miyu, "Alright, you wanna sit on my lap, or do you want me on yours?"

Out of context, that question might have been misconstrued into any number of awkward or arousing situations, but at the time, she was referring to who was going to pilot the Arwing. Miyu gestured to Fay, "I want you at the controls."

"Okay then."

* * *

"Running pre-flight checks now..." Miyu muttered aloud as she tapped the option on the touchscreen. The ship's computer initiated a self-scan, and gave them the clear for takeoff. With that, Miyu wrapped her arms around Fay's waist and asked her, "You ready?"

Fay took a deep breath, "Now or never."

With that, she turned the Arwing's engines on. In response, the G-diffusers kicked on, projecting a graviton field that reduced the amount of energy needed for liftoff. There was a slight sense of weightlessness as very low-density objects began to slide and float around with the slightest provocation. The Arwing began to hover, and tilted itself on Fay's guidance. Angling it for the Lunar Gate, which was currently visible in the night sky, She engaged the thrusters. The Arwing shot toward its objective, and their surroundings became a blur as the Arwing shot through the atmosphere, leaving the planet behind. The G-diffusers kept the sudden G-forces from affecting them too much, but Miyu and Fay nonetheless felt some of the force as the Arwing soon reached, and passed, the very edge of the atmosphere, leaving Earth behind.

With the Lunar Gate in sight, Fay tapped on the screen and input a couple commands. The Arwing's computer registered the Lunar Gate as a valid, functional Orbital Gate and broadcast coordinates to the Lunar Gate's computer. In response, the Orbital Gate powered up, pumping exotic energies throughout its conduits and forcing the fabric of spacetime to bend to its specifications, tunneling into Hyperspace only to bounce back into the Universe just to tear open a hole and form a bridge between both points in the galaxy.

Miyu spared a glance out the canopy, knowing she couldn't see the Earth, but wishing she could, just to get an appreciation for how far they had come. Briefly, she wondered what it was like for Humanity when they first touched the stars, to know that thrill of finally experiencing the enormity of the Universe in its incredible vastness. She turned her attention back to the tunnel of light before her as Fay pushed the Arwing toward the portal. There was a flash as they entered the portal, and the indescribable sensation of traveling through Hyperspace at superluminal speeds, ending when they emerged from the other portal, mere moments from when they entered the Lunar Gate.

Fay opened her eyes, having unknowingly closed them during their venture through the Orbital Gates, and looked around. Off in the distance, she could make out what looked like Fortuna. She could see Lylat in its brilliance, shimmering like a beacon. She glanced behind her to see Miyu, staring out the canopy at the familiar skies they were flying in. Her eyes met Fay's, "Fay..." She let go of her waist and wiped Fay's eyes, "You're crying..."

Fay grinned and nodded, "We did it, Miyu. We're here, and we're alive!"

The radio crackled to life and a familiar voice spoke to them, "This is Fara Phoenix of the _Livid Vixen_ , identify yourself."

Fay answered the radio, ecstatic, "It's us, Fara!"

"Fay? Thank Lyla, you're alive! Is Miyu with you?"

"I'm here, and we've got an additional passenger as well. How far out are you?"

Fara's excitement and relief echoed through the radio, "Starboard, about an hour away. I'll have Saru set course right now!"

Fay smiled, "This Arwing's still got some juice, we'll meet you halfway."

The radio clicked off and Miyu wrapped her arms around Fay's waist again as she piloted the Arwing, "Home sweet home."

* * *

It watched as the Lunar Gate shut off, the warped spacetime settling back down into a normal state. It was saddened to see them leave, but it knew that for it to succeed where it had failed in the past, it needed them to leave so that they could better prepare themselves for their return, if it were successful. In the meantime, it still had a few problems to deal with, namely the intruders that wished to try and impose their will on it, control its functions and weaponize it for their small, single-minded purposes. It still had a lot of work to do, but it had achieved its own great leap forward, having finally restored functionality to an ancient, Muonic Fusion Reactor that served as its heart, and with that, it could begin preparations for the next phase of its plan, and that meant protecting the Preserved at all costs.

* * *

A/N

→ Original Content (SK-7, EE-40, 23-E) used with permission. Credit goes to Tobias Umbra.

→ So ends this chapter in their lives. But with so many loose ends and so much foreshadowing, do you really think I'd leave it at that? I'd be insane to do so! 'Star Fox: Other Side' may have ended, but the story has only just started! I'll see you all again in 'Star Fox: Other World.'


End file.
